Conan O'Brien ascends to the "Tonight Show" throne in 2009

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6115643/



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."

[Gothic Sponge]

1. dup

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x1745461

[Screaming Lord Bob]

2. yes, but he gave the year...

unlike that dirty matcom!!
Oh, it wasn't him?

:silly:

[tcfrogs]

3. No, that was me

I wanted the suspense of having to open the thread, dammit!!!

[Screaming Lord Bob]

5. I know. But matcom is the Screaming Lord's mortal enemy.

I just don't remember why...

[HEyHEY]

4. So we gotta wait another 5 years before the tonight show is good again?