Conan to replace Leno in 2009

breaking news.....link to follow

 

By Gael Fashingbauer Cooper
MSNBC
Updated: 1:58 p.m. ET Sept. 27, 2004The "Tonight Show" helm will pass from the man with the chin to the redhead, but not until 2009.

NBC announced Monday that Conan O'Brien, onetime "Simpsons" writer and host of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," will succeed Jay Leno as "Tonight Show" host in 2009. Leno will make the announcement during Monday's "Tonight Show."

"In 2009, I'll be 59 years-old and will have had this dream job for 17 years," Leno said in an NBC press release. "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 [his wife] Mavis I would take her out for dinner before I turned 60."

O'Brien recently signed a contract that will keep him hosting "Late Night" until the transition in 2009. "'The Tonight Show' is one of the great franchises in television and I am thrilled to get this opportunity," said O'Brien in the same press release. "I am thankful to everyone at NBC - which has been my home for the last eleven years — and I am particularly grateful to Jay for all the generous support and kindness he has always shown me."

Leno took over the "Tonight Show" when longtime host Johnny Carson retired in May of 1992. Reports at the time were that fellow talk-show host and Leno pal David Letterman was upset about not having been given the job. A year later, Letterman moved from NBC, where he had worked for 11 years, to CBS where his "Late Show with David Letterman" competes with Leno's "Tonight Show."

 

Damn.

Letterman got upstaged by his unknown replacement.

Leno sucks, I think. I hope Conan brings the insult dog.

 

good for him. and at least Leno gets five more years also.

 

Hope he doesnt mention Jay his 1st night

 

Hmmmmmmmmmm, now will Conan do the show from NY (original home of the TONIGHT show up until the early 70's, when Johnny Carson moved the show out to Burbank) or LA ? ? ? I think NBC bigwigs will push for him to do the show in LA since there are more easily accesible movie stars out there vs. the East Coast . . . .

 

It will be interesting to see him interview someone besides Tom Arnold

 

Robert Smigel is a genius.

Leno's too fucking staged. I like him as a comic but it's just not funny, the show. Now Dave, Dave's funny. But he's too good improvising, so anything they try to plan, looks forced as hell.

 

I Loooove Conan! He's so Whacky!

 

I wonder how this will change his overall show. His audience seems to be much different than that of Leno, and he can even get away with more due to the later timeslot.

Hope he isn't forced to clean up or change his show.