A New Era in Late Night Television

Jack Paar, Steve Allen, Johnny Carson and Jay Leno have served as the host of the Tonight Show since its inception, now the show is hosted by Leno's late night predecessor Conan O' Brien.

On September 27, 2004, the 50th anniversary of the show's premiere, NBC announced that Jay Leno would be succeeded by Conan O'Brien in 2009. Leno expressed a desire to avoid any controversies in leaving the show and allowing Conan to transition into the role of host.

The final episode of The Tonight Show with Leno as host aired on Friday, May 29, 2009. O'Brien replaced Leno as host on The Tonight Show on Monday, June 1 from a new studio in Stage 1 of the Universal Studios Hollywood back lot, ending an era (since 1972) of taping the show in Burbank.

Both Universal Studios and NBC are owned by the NBC Universal unit of General Electric, and NBC Universal had previously decided in 2007 to vacate and sell NBC's Burbank studio properties.

The first episode of The Tonight Show with O'Brien as host aired June 1, 2009 and featured Will Ferrell as a guest (promoting the Universal film Land of the Lost) and a performance by rock band Pearl Jam.

Personally, I never really found Conan O'Brien funny, the only reasons I watched his show was for his unique segments like "If They Mated" or of course Triumph The Insult Comic Dog.

When I heard that O'Brien would take over as host, I was kinda disappointed, because if anybody deserved to be the host of the Tonight Show it had to be Jon Stewart. To me, even though he is qualified it as about as worse of a move as Drew Carey taking over for Bob Barker on The Price Is Right.

Granted, I have yet to see a new show of O'Brien's tenure, and maybe there won't be a plummet in the ratings, but I don't know if O'Brien will have the extended tenure as host like Carson (30 years-1962 to 1992) or Leno (17 years-1992 to 2009).

Following in O'Brien's place, is SNL alumni Jimmy Fallon, who took over in Conan's time slot earlier this month, to prepare for the show To help him prepare for his new Late Night host role, SNL creator Lorne Michaels had Fallon perform stand-up comedy in clubs and create a series of webisodes. A behind-the-scenes vlog documenting preparations for the new show launched on December 8, 2008, with new episodes being posted weeknights at 12:30 a.m. ET

So no longer will there be a Leno vs. Letterman feud, that spawned a really good HBO movie, a few years ago. Now Letterman who remains as the host of CBS's "The Late Show" as the elder statesman of Late Night TV will battle O'Brien for the ratings. I don't think Letterman is going to be losing to the Tonight Show this time around.