posted 09-27-2004 08:38 PM                       

quote:

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O'Brien to replace Leno on 'The Tonight Show'

Monday, September 27, 2004 Posted: 8:07 PM EDT (0007 GMT)
LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Jay Leno will hand over the reins of NBC's "The Tonight Show" to "Late Night" host Conan O'Brien - - but not until 2009, the network announced Monday.

"In 2009, I'll be 59 years old and will have had this dream job for 17 years," Leno said in NBC's written statement. "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 (his wife) I would take her out for dinner before I turned 60," Leno said.

O'Brien, 41, has signed a contract to stay in his current job at 12:30 a.m. ET for the next five years and then take over the top- rated late-night show when Leno retires.

"Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien continue to be the most successful combination in all of late night," said NBC senior vice president Rick Ludwin. "We have locked in the future ... for years to come."

It's not clear just how long O'Brien is "locked in." NBC would not say how long his new contract lasts, nor how much he and Leno are to be paid.

The early announcement avoids a replay of the early 1990s, when the retirement of veteran host Johnny Carson touched off a behind-the-scenes battle between Leno and then- "Late Night" host David Letterman over who would be Carson's successor.

That feud ended with Letterman going to CBS to compete head-to-head with Leno. Letterman took an early lead in the ratings, but Leno has been consistently ahead for the last nine years.

O'Brien, in the statement, called "The Tonight Show" "one of the great franchises in television" and said he is "thrilled to get this opportunity."

"I am thankful to everyone at NBC -- which has been my home for the last 11 years -- and I am particularly grateful to Jay for all the generous support and kindness he has always shown me," he said.

The announcement leaves an upcoming vacancy in the 12:30 a.m. time slot, a position that catapulted both Letterman and O'Brien onto TV's lucrative A-list.

Leno, a stand-up comic, was Carson's guest host before taking over full-time. O'Brien was a writer for "Saturday Night Live" and "The Simpsons" before landing the "Late Night" job in 1993.

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posted 09-28-2004 12:46 AM                       

quote: Darryl Spicer

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The best thing is Kilbore...I mean Kilborn is gone. Conan is much more funnier than he ever was.

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Conan was a lot better when Andy Richter was still on the show. Kilborn's interviews, IMHO, were better than any of the other shows. Classier too, I think. At 12:35am, I'm not really looking for great comedy, just the odd chuckle, while still being entertained. Kilborn was good at that.

I usually decided which show to watch by seeing who was on both (Conan & Kilborn) and then picking one to watch. It was easy to do since Kilborn started about a minute later than Conan, so you'd watch the opening to Conan, and then flip to the opening of Kilborn. I usually ended up watching Kilborn.

Now I'm back to watching Conan once in a while, who I respect for pissing off Quebec.