NBC Passes Late-Night Torch

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

NBC announced Monday that Conan O’Brien will take over from Jay Leno as host of “The Tonight Show.” But he’ll have time to write his jokes the planned succession won’t happen until 2009.


The announcement solves a delicate problem for NBC, which realized Mr. O’Brien was getting antsy in his “Late Night” time slot (12:35 a.m. Eastern) and wanted to keep him from jumping to another network.


Mr. Leno planned to make the announcement on Monday’s edition of “Tonight,” a special celebration of the talk show’s 50th anniversary.


“In 2009, I’ll be 59 years old and will have had this dream job for 17 years,” Mr. Leno said. “When I signed my new contract, I felt that the timing was right to plan for my successor and there is no one more qualified than Conan.”


“Plus, I promised Mavis I would take her out for dinner before I turned 60,” the notoriously workaholic Mr. Leno said about his wife.


Mr. Leno took over from Johnny Carson on “Tonight” in 1992 and after a few years of trailing the man he beat out for the job in the ratings – David Letterman – he passed the CBS star and has been dominant in the time slot.


An unknown at the time, Mr. O’Brien had the thankless job of taking over from Mr. Letterman on “Late Night,” and he was nearly fired after several weeks of painful shows. But he recovered and has been a critical and commercial success.


But Mr. O’Brien has openly talked about wanting to move on and, in the late-night world, that means an earlier time slot.


The New York Sun

© 2025 The New York Sun Company, LLC. All rights reserved.

Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. The material on this site is protected by copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used.

The New York Sun

Sign in or  Create a free account

or
By continuing you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use