In January 2010, NBC announced that
Jay Leno, host of
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (1992), from whom
Conan O'Brien took over the role as host, would have his not-so-well-received
The Jay Leno Show (2009) move towards the 11:35 PM time-slot and that
The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien (2009) would be pushed back to the 12:05 AM time-slot. "The Tonight Show" has never aired that late during its almost 60 years on air. Furthermore, this push-back would have meant that
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (2009), follow-up to O'Brien's own
Late Night with Conan O'Brien (1993), would also have been pushed back to a later time-slot, too. When
The Jay Leno Show (2009) was officially canceled and it became clear that Leno would get his own new show at 11:35 PM, O'Brien released a statement in which he made clear that he didn't like how NBC handled the situation. He also stated that he wouldn't continue hosting
The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien (2009) if it was pushed back to a later time-slot. Eventually that month, it was officially announced that Leno would get "The Tonight Show" back on March 1st and that O'Brien will receive a severance payment of about $33 million from NBC.
