Here’s a brief recap of what happened. In 2004, it was announced that in 2009, after hosting “The Tonight Show” for 17 years, Jay Leno would retire and Conan O’Brien would take over. And sure enough, that’s what happened: Leno said goodbye in 2009 and Conan stepped in, with his version of “The Tonight Show” premiering on June 1, 2009. Sadly, he wouldn’t have the gig very long. The ratings for Conan’s “Tonight Show” weren’t exactly great. Then, to further complicate things, Jay Leno returned with a whole new show, titled “The Jay Leno Show,” which premiered in September 2009 and aired before Conan’s “Tonight Show” on NBC.
In January of 2010, NBC made the surprise announcement that they planned to bump Leno’s show to “The Tonight Show”‘s 11:35 PM timeslot and move Conan’s “Tonight Show” to a post-midnight slot. This did not sit well with O’Brien, who firmly believed that moving “The Tonight Show” off its traditional 11:35 PM slot would ruin the legacy of the show. After some back-and-forth negotiations, NBC eventually bought out Conan’s contract. As a result, O’Brien’s version of “The Tonight Show” ended on January 22, 2010, after only 146 episodes. “The Tonight Show” then returned to the airwaves in March of 2010, with Leno back as the host. Leno would remain host until February 2014, at which point Jimmy Fallon took over the job. O’Brien would go on to host a new talk show, titled “Conan,” on TBS.