On July 1, 2010, Variety reported that only six months into its second life, Leno's Tonight Show posted its lowest ratings since 1992. By September 2010, Leno's ratings in the adults demographic had fallen below those of O'Brien when he had hosted The Tonight Show. NBC ratings specialist Tom Bierbaum commented that due to the host being out of late night television for a period of time and the subsequent 2010 Tonight Show conflict, Leno's ratings fall was "not a surprise at all".
In October 2010, David Letterman beat Leno's program in the ratings, for the first time since Leno returned to hosting The Tonight Show. By May 2011, Leno's Tonight Show regained the lead and has held it since then. However, by August 2012, The Los Angeles Times was reporting that The Tonight Show was in serious trouble for a number of reasons, most notably that NBC has been losing money.
While Leno offered to take a pay cut, at least 24 members of his staff were laid off. On May 13, 2013, during its fall "upfronts" presentation, NBC confirmed Fallon would take over as host of the Tonight Show beginning on February 17, 2014; Seth Meyers, in turn, would leave Saturday Night Live and take over Fallon's time slot. Johnny Carson retired from The Tonight Show on May 22, 1992, and was replaced by Jay Leno. David Letterman wanted to move into the earlier time slot from his late night spot after The Tonight Show, and he was also considered by many as the natural successor (despite Leno having been Carson's permanent guest host for several years).
Carson always favored Letterman; notably Carson, who had been interviewed by Letterman, made two appearances on Letterman's rival CBS show, made no mention of Leno during his final shows and regularly sent Letterman monologue jokes in his final years. With his heart set on the earlier time slot, Letterman left NBC in June 1993 and joined CBS that August. The Late Show with David Letterman, airing in the same slot, competed against The Tonight Show for the remainder of Leno's run. Leno would outdo Letterman in ratings for the majority of the show's run.
Conan O'Brien slid into the late night time slot vacated by Letterman in September 1993. We're talking, of course, about what they watch on late night television. It triggered a lot of bad publicity for NBC, an outpouring of public support for O'Brien, and some of the best late night jokes in a decade. Following the September 11 attacks, The Tonight Show was off the air for about a week, as were most similar programs.
The first post-9/11 episode began with a still image of an American flag and a subdued opening without the usual opening credits. Leno's monologue paid tribute to those who lost their lives and to firefighters, police and rescue workers across the US. He also told a story about himself as a 12-year old Boy Scout, which Leno said he was not a very good one because of his dyslexia. His scoutmaster gave him the task of being the "cheermaster" of the troop, in which Leno told jokes to the troop to keep their spirits up. Senator John McCain and the musical group Crosby, Stills, and Nash were featured guests. Leno also organized an auction for a Harley-Davidson motorcycle signed by celebrities (he signed his name on-stage), with the proceeds going to 9/11 support organizations.
For an extended period after the attack, a short clip of a large American flag waving was shown in between the announcement of the musical guest and Leno's introduction during the opening montage. But for another late night host, the goodbye was more bitter than sweet. "The Olympics start airing tonight on NBC. It's very cool. That's right, NBC has the Olympics," Conan O'Brien, 50, said during his monologue on Feb. 6. "It's a big deal. NBC will finally get to show somebody who is OK with passing the torch." Leno, of course, famously took back the Tonight Show hosting duties less than a year after O'Brien replaced him back in 2009.
O'Brien promises that last few weeks of Conan will be a celebration of the show's history, with a look back at some of its best and most memorable moments. Special guests are also on deck—hopefully a return engagement from Jimmy Vivino and the Basic Cable Band? Conan was never a hit, and quickly became overlooked as the networks launched more and more late night talk shows of their own. Still, it had a loyal fan base, and preserved O'Brien's distinctive brand of smart, sharp silliness as late night in general became largely political. Conan was always a refreshing change of pace from the network shows, and a nostalgic flashback to O'Brien's heyday on Late Night. Given O'Brien's charm and his significant talent as a comedy writer, and his proven ability to assemble some of the best comedy writing staffs in TV history, we're definitely excited to see what he has in store with his new HBO Max store.
After 28 years as a late night talk show host, spanning three different shows on two networks, he leaves the nightly grind tonight. Talk show host Conan O'Brien said goodbye to late night last night , wrapping his final episode ofConanon TBS. On his final episode, the ginger icon welcomed final guest Jack Black, who sent him off with a heavy metal version of Sinatra's "My Way" . Almost six months ago it was announced that Conan O'Brien would be ending his TBS late night show Conan and moving on to a new program on HBO Max. Last night O'Brien, who's the current longest-serving host in late night, announced the date for his final episode. It'll air on TBS on June 24—which, when I first heard it, felt like a while off, but is actually next month, I am just now realizing.
Neither O'Brien's version of the program, which premiered June 1, 2009, nor The Jay Leno Show generated the ratings NBC had expected. The network decided to move a condensed 30-minute version of Leno's show to O'Brien's time slot, and O'Brien's Tonight Show a half-hour later. This decision met with opposition from O'Brien, whose stint on The Tonight Show ended January 22, 2010, after which he began his own talk show, Conan, on TBS. The Tonight Show with Jay Leno then began its second incarnation, the sixth of the franchise, on March 1, 2010. Leno left The Tonight Show for good on February 6, 2014 and on February 17, was succeeded by Late Night host Jimmy Fallon, at which time the series returned to New York for the first time since 1972.
As NBC's Jay Leno prepares to pass "Tonight Show" hosting duties to Conan O'Brien and launch a new talk show, a newspaper television critic mulls the future landscape of late night television. Leno also received pre-recorded farewells from celebrities such as actors Matt Damon, Mark Wahlberg, Charlie Sheen, sports broadcaster Bob Costas and his successor Jimmy Fallon. Even President Barack Obama, who in 2009 became the first sitting president to appear on a late night talk show when he joined Leno on "Tonight," delivered a pre-recorded goodbye. "As with the world, tonight is a big night for change in late night television. Our friend Jay Leno — 22 years as host of The Tonight Show. Twenty-two years, that's remarkable isn't it?" Letterman, 66, said on his Late Show on Thursday, Feb. 6.
"He began in 1992 on The Tonight Show and February 17, which I guess is after the Olympics, Jimmy Fallon — our little buddy Jimmy Fallon — will be replacing Jay. Jay was on our show — the old Late Night Show — over 40 times." In the May 2011 sweeps period, all of NBCs late night programming had increased viewership. The Tonight Show received a 15% increase in viewership compared with the first 36 weeks of last season.
In that process, it outlasted rival late night talk shows Jimmy Kimmel Live! Both of Leno's lead-in, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and Last Call with Carson Daly, also received increased viewership. For the season, in the 18–49 demographic, The Tonight Show had 4 million viewers, compared with Late Show, which had 3.5 million, and Jimmy Kimmel Live! Nightline, though, still beat Leno in the May 2011 sweeps, with 4.4 million viewers. For at least six weeks following his return to The Tonight Show, Leno's program beat Letterman in the overall ratings each night, though with a reduced lead in comparison to his first tenure. By mid-2010, The Tonight Show was receiving its lowest ratings since 1992, an average of 4 million total viewers, though he remained ahead of Letterman, who experienced a coinciding decline in ratings.
In September 2010, The Tonight Show posted its lowest numbers on record, with Leno averaging 3.8 million viewers. This was a 12% increase in total viewers over O'Brien at the same time the previous year, but still 23% below O'Brien in the coveted 18–49 demographic. For the first time in almost 15 years, the show slipped to second place in its time slot being consistently beaten by Nightline. In October 2010, Letterman beat Leno's program in the ratings, for the first time since Leno returned to hosting The Tonight Show. Jay Leno said goodbye to viewers last night, as he wrapped up his final Tonight Show episode after hosting the legendary NBC program for 22 years.
Several stars celebrated the achievement, and fellow host and former rival David Letterman was among those to wish him well. Comedian Jay Leno said an emotional goodbye to the "Tonight Show" on Thursday with a star-studded farewell led by actor Billy Crystal, after hosting the NBC late night program for more than 20 years and handing the reins over to Jimmy Fallon. On November 18, 2010, former President George W. Bush made his first appearance on a late night talk show since leaving office. This marked the first time that a sitting President of the United States appeared on a late night talk show.
President Obama came under fire for a remark made about the Special Olympics, which he made in reference to Leno's congratulations to Obama's low bowling score. Despite stints as a writer on both The Simpsons and Saturday Night Live, O'Brien seemed an untested talent back then who hadn't built his persona in public, like the former standup comics who hosted all the other late night talk shows. I remember that O'Brien also didn't seem to quite fit in when first entered the late night talk arena way back in 1993, taking over NBC's Late Night show after David Letterman left for CBS. Even as new voices like Amber Ruffin, Desus and Mero and Ziwe try to reinvent late night talk for a new generation, O'Brien is headed for the exit, seemingly eager to redefine himself before the industry does it for him.
Still, this transition feels like an odd combination of O'Brien leaving late night TV as the genre leaves him. His smartly silly comedy — disconnected from politics, celebrity worship or anything resembling showbiz cool – is now beloved by a sliver of the TV audience too small to sustain a regular gig, even on standard cable. Prior to 2009, The Tonight Show was hosted by Jay Leno, with former SNL writer Conan O'Brien hosting the show that followed it, Late Night. Fearing that O'Brien would defect to another network for an earlier time slot, NBC agreed to force out Leno and give The Tonight Show to O'Brien.
Late Night was given to SNL alum Jimmy Fallon, followed by O'Brien starting his Tonight Show, and Leno attempting a 10 PM prime time show. The last time "The Tonight Show" averaged more viewers was the night of the "Seinfeld" series finale in May, 1998. That episode, which featured Jerry Seinfeld as a guest, brought in nearly 15 million people. Despite the controversy, Leno soon earned a reputation for his cordial, easygoing manner, strong work ethic, and knack for connecting with his audience. Under Leno's leadership, the program garnered four Emmy Awards (1995–97; 1999), and Leno was awarded numerous accolades, including a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame in 2000. By 2008 the show was attracting more than five million nightly viewers, nearly one and a half times as many as its nearest rival, the Late Show.
I wouldn't bet on Jay's retiring; he already has plenty of comedy gigs booked and could easily work on TV again, but he seems now to realize, not on this network in this time slot. I've seen Jay Leno quit Tonight once; this time his tone seemed more final. It was announced on July 21, 2008 that Leno would host his final episode of The Tonight Show on Friday, May 29, 2009 with O'Brien and James Taylor as his guests.
O'Brien took over hosting duties commencing the following Monday, on June 1, 2009. His competition pulled out all the stops in an attempt to overshadow his goodbye, with Kimmel booking a star-studded movie cast and Conan doing the same with one of TV's most popular shows. But we'd be remiss if we didn't cover the final paragraph in one of the most successful chapters in TV history.
Jay Leno's last Tonight Show was one for the ratings record books. The host's last episode brought in 14.6 million viewers, the show's biggest audience since the night Seinfeld ended in May 1998. But until the end of his last show as host on Thursday, Leno's departure has been a fairly tears-free transition. We already said goodbye to Leno once, so this second farewell lacks the impact it would have had otherwise. These days, despite nearly three decades in the trenches of late night TV, it's tough to zero in on the legacy O'Brien will leave.
In the end, it may just be the story of an irrepressible talent who always found a way to shine wherever he landed, fueled by his own quirky comedy sense and relentless drive, regardless of what was going on around him. But it never developed Nielsen ratings to match what O'Brien could access on a broadcast network (The Wrap website reported this week Conan's ratings have declined 29 percent during the current TV season, averaging about 282,000 viewers a night). Instead, the show has leaned into creating online content for fans to consume on YouTube and through his website, mirroring how many viewers now seem to connect with talk show content. The final "Tonight Show with Jay Leno" was up 283%, nearly tripling the show's season average in total viewers (3.82 million heading into this week).
And in adults 18-49, "Tonight" did a 3.8 rating — more than four times the show's average this season (0.9) and its highest since Conan O'Brien's final night as host in January 2010. But that's Leno's audience – an older demographic looking for something familiar to settle down to at the end of the night. (He once again went out on a ratings high-note, nabbing a 4.3 on the penultimate night of his farewell week – more viewers than some primetime shows these days.) So Fallon's got some big shoes to fill.
"I don't like goodbyes – NBC does – but I don't care for them," an emotional Jay Leno said, kicking off a star-studded final broadcast show as host of The Tonight Show. I don't need to be fired three times — I get the hint," Leno joked to a friends-and-family studio audience as he ended his 22-year run Thursday night. It's his second very-last-time-as-host — having been pushed aside in 2009 by NBC to make way for Conan O'Brien, who lasted seven months. We may never know if Leno truly regrets coming back to host theTonight Showfor four more years, standing in as everyone's favorite punching bag. Given that O'Brien will soon lose his status as late night's longest tenured current host, it was easy to read a double meaning in that moment.
On the May 25, Mel Gibson will join the show with musical guest Lovett. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will appear with musical guest Yoakam on the May 26. Comedian Wanda Sykes and musical guest Sarah McLachlan will appear the next night, and on May 28, Billy Crystal – Jay's first-ever "Tonight Show" guest – and musical guest Prince will visit the set. The late show host will have a number of noteworthy celebs – included musicians Lyle Lovett and Dwight Yoakam making their respective 25th appearances on the show – for his final week of shows, which air from Monday, May 25, to Friday, May 29. Leno ended his long-running late night tenure with one of the guests from his first "Tonight Show" on May 25, 1992, actor-comedian Crystal, who praised Leno for giving a comic's levity to current events and "making us sleep better at night."
Fallon chose to perform with The Muppets because in his studio, he found exposed pipes in a dressing room that were painted by Jim Henson while he waited to be a guest on one of the late night shows hosted in the studio. Fallon said he was amazed that "Late Night" did not exist five years ago and that he has told 10,000 monologue jokes in his time hosting. Viewership of the "Tonight Show," which has been the top-rated late night show under Leno's guidance since 1995, was also helped on Thursday by NBC's lead-in coverage of the first day of Winter Olympics. LOS ANGELES - Jay Leno's send-off as the host of NBC's late-night talk show the "Tonight Show" drew 14.6 million viewers, Nielsen Media Research said on Friday, topping the audience that bid adieu to the host when he left the show for the first time in 2009. Long-time US television host Jay Leno has taped his final episode of The Tonight Show.
"Hello, hello, I'm Jay Leno. Let it hereby be known I'm taking over all the shows on late night," Kimmel joked in his monologue back in 2010. He reportedly decided to reduce his salary in an effort to save the jobs of some of his Tonight Show staffers. Around the same time, rival network ABC announced that it would move Jimmy Kimmel Live! Unfortunately, Leno's new show, which aired at 10 p.m., failed to attract much of an audience. The ratings for The Tonight Show also declined after O'Brien took over as host. NBC planned to move Leno's program to late-night, subsequently pushing O'Brien's Tonight Showto after midnight.
When O'Brien refused to accept the scheduling change, the network eventually decided to put Leno back behind the desk at The Tonight Show. In 2003, Leno announced that he planned to leave NBC by 2010.Conan O'Brien of Late Night with Conan O'Brien was soon named Leno's heir apparent on The Tonight Show. In December 2008, shortly before Leno's contract was set to expire, the network announced that his upcoming show would air in a prime-time slot. In 1992, Johnny Carson surprised many by retiring from his long-standing role as America's beloved and premier talk show host.
There had been speculation that Letterman, whose Late Night show followed Carson's, would take over hosting duties, a position he had publicly coveted. However, NBC instead picked the clean-cut Leno, considered a safer, more middle-America-friendly choice. One thing Jay's fans and detractors respond to in him is that he looks at hosting not as art or an exalted calling but a job. If you love him, it means he doesn't put on airs but just works damn hard to help people unwind and laugh five nights a week. If you hate him, it mean that he was a careerist who took his comedic gifts and wasted them by watering down his comedy to appeal to the biggest audience possible. In Portugal, the show was first shown on SIC Comedia until the channel was off the air by the end of 2006.
The show was switched to SIC Mulher until Leno moved to prime-time. Sic Radical used to broadcast The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien following the demand from their target audience to O'Brien's humor, after Jimmy Fallon took over Late Night. The contract that both NBC and SIC had was not expired by the time The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien got cancelled, so the network received the rights to exhibit The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. On March 1, 2010, Leno made his return to The Tonight Show with a re-written version of The Jay Leno Show theme song and a renovated Stage 11.
