On this day in 2010, comedian Conan O\u2019Brien hosts his final episode of \u201cThe Tonight Show,\u201d following an announcement by NBC earlier in the month that Jay Leno would return as the host of the long-running, late-night program. The decision to replace O\u2019Brien was met with protests by his fans and became a public-relations debacle for the network.<\/p>\n
In its early years \u201cThe Tonight Show,\u201d which debuted in 1954, was hosted by entertainers including Steve Allen and Jack Paar. Under Johnny Carson, who assumed hosting duties in 1962, the program, with its opening monologue, celebrity interviews, musical performances and comedy sketches, became a late-night institution for millions of Americans. When Carson retired in 1992 he was replaced by Leno. On September 27, 2004, the 50th anniversary of the show\u2019s launch, NBC announced O\u2019Brien would take over from Leno in 2009.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Born in Massachusetts in 1963, O\u2019Brien graduated from Harvard University and went on to work as a writer for such television shows as \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d and \u201cThe Simpsons.\u201d In 1993, the lanky redhead began hosting his own TV show on NBC, \u201cLate Night with Conan O\u2019Brien,\u201d which followed \u201cThe Tonight Show.\u201d After recording the final \u201cLate Night\u201d show on February 20, 2009, O\u2019Brien and his staff relocated from New York City to Los Angeles for \u201cThe Tonight Show with Conan O\u2019Brien,\u201d which premiered on June 1, 2009.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Leno went on to helm his own weeknight comedy series in primetime. However, the program earned less-than-stellar ratings, and after a strong start O\u2019Brien\u2019s \u201cTonight Show\u201d ratings also slumped. In early January 2010, NBC executives proposed rearranging the late-night lineup: Leno would host a half-hour show at 11:35 p.m. ET (the long-standing start time for \u201cTonight Show\u201d) while \u201cThe Tonight Show with Conan O\u2019Brien\u201d would move to 12:05 a.m. O\u2019Brien objected to this plan, publicly stating on January 12: \u201cI sincerely believe that delaying \u2018The Tonight Show\u2019 into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting. \u2018The Tonight Show\u2019 at 12:05 simply isn\u2019t \u2018The Tonight Show.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Brien\u2019s fans held rallies outside NBC studios in Los Angeles and other U.S. cities and organized an \u201cI\u2019m with CoCo\u201d online support movement. Nevertheless, on January 21 it was reported that O\u2019Brien had reached a deal with NBC worth more than $30 million to leave \u201cThe Tonight Show.\u201d His last episode aired the following night and included guests Tom Hanks, Will Ferrell and Neil Young. During the program O\u2019Brien said: \u201cWalking away from \u2018The Tonight Show\u2019 is the hardest thing I have ever had to do. \u2026Every comedian dreams of hosting \u2018The Tonight Show\u2019 and, for seven months, I got to. I did it my way, with people I love, and I do not regret a second.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leno returned as host of \u201cThe Tonight Show\u201d on March 1, 2010. On November 8 of that year, O\u2019Brien launched a new late-night program, \u201cConan,\u201d on cable channel TBS. A book about the \u201cTonight Show\u201d conflict, titled \u201cThe War for Late Night: When Leno Went Early and Television Went Crazy\u201d by New York Times reporter Bill Carter, was published that same month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On this day in 2010, comedian Conan O\u2019Brien hosts his final episode of \u201cThe Tonight Show,\u201d following an announcement by NBC earlier in the month that Jay Leno would return as the host of the long-running, late-night program. The decision to replace O\u2019Brien was met with protests by his fans and became a public-relations debacle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3511],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hollywood"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.beanybux.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.beanybux.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.beanybux.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.beanybux.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.beanybux.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.beanybux.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5817\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.beanybux.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.beanybux.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.beanybux.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}