2010 Togolese presidential election, Conduct
Lawson, the PRR candidate, grudgingly accepted Gnassingbé's re-election on 8 March, but he nevertheless alleged fraud: "The vote was so expertly stolen by the ruling party that electoral observers will never understand what really happened." Bassabi Kagbara, the PDP candidate, reacted to the official results—according to which he received only 0.41% of the vote—on 9 March; he said that he did not recognize the results, but also appealed for "calm and dialogue".


2010 Togolese presidential election, Conduct
In an interview on 11 March, Gilbert Bawara, the Minister of Cooperation, criticized Fabre. He said that Fabre should not expect the Togolese people to trust him when he did not trust others, and he argued that Fabre's claims of victory were ridiculous, noting that Fabre initially claimed a score of 75–80% but later claimed a lesser figure of 55–60%. According to Bawara, Gnassingbé would consider the fact that Fabre had received a respectable number of votes; Bawara observed that Fabre's score of 34% was particularly impressive because he had not been envisioned as a presidential candidate before January 2010. However, he also said that Fabre lacked experience and did not do serious work in the National Assembly.


2010 Togolese presidential election, Conduct
Supporters of Gnassingbé and Fabre both held marches in Lomé on 13 March. The marches were peaceful and did not confront one another, taking different paths through the city.


2010 Togolese presidential election, Results
On 18 March, the Constitutional Court confirmed the results and declared that Gnassingbé had been elected President, rejecting five appeals from the opposition. The results confirmed by the Constitutional Court were nearly identical to those previously released by CENI, although both of the main candidates were credited with slightly reduced totals. Decisions of the Constitutional Court are not subject to appeal, and thus the decision of 18 March marked the conclusion of "all the electoral processes". Speaking on behalf of Fabre and the FRAC coalition, Patrick Lawson denounced the Constitutional Court's decision and described Fabre as "the elected President". He urged the people "to stand opposed to this electoral hold-up" and "remain mobilized until the restitution of power to Jean-Pierre Fabre".


2010 Togolese presidential election, Aftermath
In the period following the Court's decision, the FRAC coalition continued to hold protests on a weekly basis. A protest on 24 March 2010 was marked by clashes between the protesters and the police, and the opposition said that 30 people suffered injuries as a result. Thousands of Fabre's supporters participated in a protest held in Lomé on 10 April 2010. Late on 14 April, the security forces prevented a planned candlelight vigil on the grounds that it had not received a permit. Around 70 people who were present at the UFC headquarters were detained and questioned. According to the security forces, the questioning was necessary because some of those present "were individuals from neighbouring countries" who intended "to breach public order".


2010 Togolese presidential election, Aftermath
Tensions between the Fabre and Olympio factions of the UFC remained evident after the election. UFC militants, allegedly acting on instructions from Fabre and other UFC leaders, threw stones at a motorcade carrying Olympio to a protest in mid-April 2010, and Olympio, protected by security forces, then returned home. Some of those involved said that they had thrown stones because Jean-Claude Homawoo—the CENI representative who had, in the eyes of Fabre supporters, demonstrated disloyalty during the run-up to the election—was present in the motorcade, but Homawoo said that he was not even in Togo at the time. Later in the month, Olympio reiterated his support for Fabre's candidacy.


2010 Togolese presidential election, Aftermath
Fabre supporters held another protest on 1 May 2010. On that occasion, Fabre called on the people to wear yellow (the party color of the UFC) on 3 May, the date Gnassingbé was scheduled to be sworn in, as a symbolic gesture of protest. He expressed continued resolve and confidence that he would take power within weeks.


2010 Togolese presidential election, Aftermath
Gnassingbé was sworn in for his second term on 3 May 2010 at a ceremony in the presence of several other African leaders. Prime Minister Gilbert Houngbo, a technocrat first appointed by Gnassingbé in 2008, resigned on 5 May; Gnassingbé re-appointed him as Prime Minister on 7 May.


2010 Togolese presidential election, Aftermath
The reappointment of Houngbo was followed by negotiations between the government and the UFC, with Olympio's approval, regarding UFC participation in the government. This marked a distinct change in attitude for the UFC, as it had previously always taken a hard line against the RPT regime and refused to participate in the government. After a few weeks, Olympio announced on 27 May 2010 that he had signed an agreement with RPT Secretary-General Solitoki Esso that provided for the inclusion of seven UFC ministers in "a government of national reconstruction", along with various electoral reforms sought by the UFC.


2010 Togolese presidential election, Aftermath
The agreed reforms included the redrawing of constituencies (the existing boundaries tended to favor the RPT), a new census, and the revision of the voter rolls. Olympio said that he would chair a committee to monitor matters related to the agreement. Later on the same day, Houngbo confirmed that an agreement had been reached on the inclusion of seven UFC ministers and electoral reforms.


2010 Togolese presidential election, Aftermath
Highlighting the continuing differences between the Olympio and Fabre factions of the UFC, Fabre expressed disapproval for Olympio's decision on 27 May, saying that Olympio was acting contrary to the wishes of the UFC National Bureau.


2010 Togolese presidential election, Aftermath
With the agreement concluded, Gnassingbé appointed Houngbo's new government on 28 May 2010; it included 31 ministers, seven of whom were members of the UFC. Powerful Gnassingbé loyalists like Pascal Bodjona remained in the government, while Solitoki Esso was also brought back into the government as Minister of State for the Civil Service and Administrative Reform. Acting under Fabre's direction, the UFC National Bureau immediately met on 28 May and subjected Olympio—the UFC's founder and President—to a "temporary expulsion" for violating party discipline. The UFC members appointed to the government were also temporarily expelled. UFC First Vice-President Patrick Lawson was present but reportedly did not approve of the decision reached by the National Bureau. Fabre continued to express a hard-line position, declaring that he was robbed of victory through fraud and was the elected president.


2010 Togolese presidential election, Aftermath
The expulsion of Olympio was apparently not accepted by the whole party, as the UFC website remained under the control of Olympio loyalists. In a statement on 29 May, the website derided Fabre and his supporters; it said that Fabre was not the "elected President" and that he did not control the UFC. According to the statement, it was impossible to expel the party's founder-president, who had been re-elected to his post as recently as July 2008, without holding an extraordinary congress to approve such a weighty decision. Despite the rift, the statement still acknowledged that Fabre was "in his place" as Secretary-General of the UFC, while asserting that Olympio remained the UFC's President.


2010 Togolese presidential election, Aftermath
The agreement struck between the government and Olympio was highly symbolic, given Olympio's long history of radical opposition to Gnassingbé Eyadema and his son, and it significantly bolstered Faure Gnassingbé's claim to be working for political reconciliation, openness, and cooperation. Nevertheless, some observers suggested that the agreement would have little practical effect, arguing that Olympio was largely distant from his party's operations.


2010 Togolese presidential election, Aftermath
Two large rallies were held in Lomé on 29 May 2010. Thousands participated in a rally to express support for Gnassingbé and his "policy of reconciliation", while thousands of Fabre supporters rallied to denounce Olympio for compromising with the RPT regime. Describing Olympio as a traitor, the demonstrators vowed to continue their struggle. Fabre said that Olympio would face the UFC's disciplinary council and that he could be permanently expelled from the party.


2010 Tokushima Vortis season
The following is information on Tokushima Vortis during the 2010 football season.


2010 Tokyo Marathon
The 2010 Tokyo Marathon (Japanese: 東京マラソン 2010) was the fourth edition of the annual marathon race in Tokyo, Japan and was held on Sunday, 28 February. The men's race was won by home athlete Masakazu Fujiwara in a time of 2:12:19, while the women's race was won by Russia's Alevtina Biktimirova in 2:34:39.


2010 Toledo Rockets football team
The 2010 Toledo Rockets football team represented the University of Toledo during the 2010 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The Rockets, led by second-year head coach Tim Beckman, compete in the West Division of the Mid-American Conference and played their home games at the Glass Bowl. They finished the season 8–5, 7–1 in MAC play and were invited to the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl where they were defeated by Sun Belt champion Florida International 32–34.


2010 Tongan Legislative Assembly
The 2010 Tongan Legislative Assembly was established following the 2010 elections, the first under a new system which saw the majority of seats elected by universal suffrage. The Taimi Media Network described it as "Tonga's first democratically elected Parliament".


2010 Tongan Legislative Assembly
The Speaker of the 2010 Assembly was Lord Lasike, until he lost his seat in Parliament on 18 July 2012, following conviction for illicit ammunitions ownership. He was replaced as Speaker by Lord Fakafanua. The Deputy Speaker was initially Lord Tuʻiʻafitu, until he was appointed Minister for Health on 2 July 2012, whereupon he was replaced by Lord Tu'iha'teiho.


2010 Tongan general election
Early general elections under a new electoral law were held in Tonga on 25 November 2010. They determined the composition of the 2010 Tongan Legislative Assembly.


2010 Tongan general election
The early elections were announced by the new King George Tupou V in July 2008 shortly before being crowned on 1 August 2008, and were preceded by a programme of constitutional reform. For the first time, a majority of the seats (17 out of 26) in the Tongan parliament were elected by universal suffrage, with the remaining nine seats being reserved for members of Tonga's nobility. This marked a major progression away from the 165-year rule of the monarchy towards a fully representative democracy. The Taimi Media Network described it as "Tonga’s first democratically elected Parliament".


2010 Tongan general election
The Democratic Party of the Friendly Islands, founded in September 2010 specifically to fight the election and led by veteran pro-democracy campaigner 'Akilisi Pohiva, secured the largest number of seats, with 12 out of the seventeen "people's representative" seats.


2010 Tongan general election, Background, Heading to political reforms
Prior to these elections, members of Tonga's Legislative Assembly (the Fale Alea) were primarily appointed by the monarch, who also selected the prime minister and the cabinet. Only nine of the 30 seats were popularly elected, and another nine were held by members of the aristocracy.


2010 Tongan general election, Background, Heading to political reforms
In April 2010 the Legislative Assembly enacted a package of political reforms, increasing the number of people's representatives from nine to seventeen, with ten seats for Tongatapu, three for Vavaʻu, two for Haʻapai and one each for Niuas and ʻEua. All of the seats are single-seat constituencies, as opposed to the multi-member constituencies used before. These changes mean that now 17 of 26 representatives (65.4%) will be directly elected, up from 9 of 30 (30.0%). The noble aristocracy will still select its nine representatives, while all remaining seats, which were previously appointed by the monarch, will be abolished.


2010 Tongan general election, Background, Heading to political reforms
While the cabinet and the prime minister were previously selected by the monarch, this time, the elected parliamentarians will vote for a prime minister.


2010 Tongan general election, Background, Heading to political reforms
The changes come in the wake of violent pro-democracy demonstrations in November 2006, in which eight people were killed and much of the business district of Tongatapu destroyed as people protested against the slow movement toward political reform. The changes have been fully supported by the king. One of the candidates, Sione Fonua, said, "The king saw the signs that people wanted change and, to his credit, he has allowed that to happen".


2010 Tongan general election, Background, Impact on the monarchy
Tonga is a very traditional society, and the role of the monarchy is extremely important.


2010 Tongan general election, Background, Impact on the monarchy
In response to the question of the impact the new legislation would have on his role, the King stated that while not officially reducing his powers, the reforms meant that he was now limited in his capacity to exercise these powers:


2010 Tongan general election, Background, Impact on the monarchy
"Officially, the sovereign's powers remain unchanged, because we are a monarchy, we have a unity of power as opposed to a separation of power. The difference in future is that I shall not be able to exercise any of my powers at will, but all the sovereign's powers must be exercised solely on the advice of the Prime Minister in most things, and in traditional matters the law lords who advise exercise of power. In that case, I suppose we are different from other nominal monarchies which retain the trappings of monarchy, but actually govern themselves as republics."


2010 Tongan general election, Background, Impact on the monarchy
Analysts, however, have said they are not yet certain what effective changes the political shift would bring. The king retains the power of veto over certain laws, as well as the power to dismiss the government.


2010 Tongan general election, Election, People's representatives
Voter registration closed on 31 August, with approximately 42,000 voters registering. In November 2010, the Women's and Children's Crisis Centre expressed concern that up to 40% of eligible voters could have failed to register.


2010 Tongan general election, Election, People's representatives
Candidates were registered on 21 and 22 October, with 147 candidates contesting the 17 constituencies. The Tongatapu 6 and 9 constituencies were the most heavily contested, with 15 candidates each, while Ha'apai 13, 'Eua 11 and Niuas 17 had only three candidates each. Ten candidates were women. Only three of the incumbent Cabinet contested the elections.


2010 Tongan general election, Election, People's representatives
Candidates were required to pay a P400 (Tonga-pa'anga) registration fee (equivalent to $215 US or €165) and present the signatures of 50 eligible voters in support of their candidacy. The suffering economy was seen as the most significant priority for the campaigners. According to the World Bank, up to 40% of Tongans live on or below the poverty line. In addition, the International Monetary Fund claims that Tonga's national debt is substantial and that the island nation is at high risk of not being able to pay them.


2010 Tongan general election, Election, People's representatives
In an address to the nation before polling stations opened, the King described the vote as "the greatest and most historic day for our kingdom". He went on to say, "You will choose your representative to the parliament and, thus, the first elected government in our country's long history."


2010 Tongan general election, Election, Nobles' representatives
Elections to the nobles' seats was reformed, through the Representatives Electoral Regulations Act 2010. Each member of the nobility was henceforth only allowed to cast a vote in the constituency containing lands to which his title of nobility was attached. The four constituencies were:


2010 Tongan general election, Election, Nobles' representatives
There were two nobles who held two titles each: Prince ʻAhoʻeitu ʻUnuakiʻotonga Tukuʻaho held the titles of Tupoutoʻa (in Haʻapai) and Lavaka (in Tongatapu), while Lord Kalaniuvalu of Tongatapu was jointly Lord Fotofili of the Niuas. It is not clear whether this enabled these two men to cast two ballots. In addition, there were three unattributed titles: Maʻatu in the Niuas, and ʻAhomeʻe and Fohe in Tongatapu.


2010 Tongan general election, Election, Nobles' representatives
Also, King Tupou V had, since 2008, instituted the unprecedented title of "Law Lords" for three men (Ramsay Robertson Dalgety, Tevita Poasi Tupou and Taniela Tufui), conferring upon them a non-hereditary life title which entitled them to vote in a nobles' constituency of their choosing, but not to be elected. Dalgety and Tupou chose to vote in Tongatapu, and Tufui in Haʻapai. Consequently, there were twelve to fourteen potential voters in Tongatapu (depending on where Prince Tukuʻaho and Lord Kalaniuvalu chose to vote), eight in Vavaʻu, seven or eight in Haʻapai, and two or three in the Niuas.


2010 Tongan general election, Results
According to election officials, approximately 89% of the 42,000 registered voters cast ballots. A delegation of fourteen observers from Australia and New Zealand were in Tonga to observe the election. Reports said they were pleased at the way the election had been managed.


2010 Tongan general election, Results
The outcome of the election resulted in a plurality of seats for the Democratic Party of the Friendly Islands, who won 12 out of the 17 "people's representative" seats, with only some 29% of the votes (because of the First Past the Post voting system being used).


2010 Tongan general election, Results
Once the results were finalised, the newly elected representatives selected a prime minister. Tongans, who have traditionally looked to the nobility for leadership, had widely expected it to be a nobleman. After their election, however, the nobles' representatives announced that they would support a commoner for prime minister but ultimately decided to support Lord Tu'ivakano.


2010 Tongan general election, Government formation
Following the election, the DPFI secured the support of one independent and was seeking the support of two others – 'Aisake Valu Eke and Sunia Fili – by offering them cabinet posts. Following concerns the noble representatives would support one of the independents for Prime Minister, the DPFI decided to hold a public rally to build public support.


2010 Tongan general election, Government formation
The formal process of electing a Prime Minister will begin after the final election results are formally notified, with the appointment of an interim Speaker and a call for nominations. MPs will then vote by secret ballot in one or more rounds, until a candidate is elected.


2010 Tongan general election, Government formation
On 3 December 2010 the King appointed Lord Tupou as interim Speaker.


2010 Tongan general election, Government formation
The three MPs from Vava'u are considered to be pro-monarchy.


2010 Tongan general election, Government formation
Sosefo Fe’aomoeata Vakata reportedly left the DPFI and became an independent, and was likely to support the nobles together with the five independent MPs, resulting in a noble-led government. He joined a bloc of 15 members, including all nine noble representatives and five other people's representatives, to jointly nominate a Prime Minister.


2010 Tongan general election, Government formation
The DPFI rejected these claims and stated it still expects to form the government. A vote was scheduled for 17 December, but then delayed to 20 December.


2010 Tongan general election, Government formation
On 15 December 2010, DPFI MP 'Isileli Pulu claimed that the DPFI had the support of 14 of the 17 popularly elected MPs and of a few nobles, 18 MPs in total.


2010 Tongan general election, Government formation
On 20 December 2010 Samuela 'Akilisi Pohiva and Siale'ataonga Tu'ivakano were nominated for Prime Minister. The election was postponed to 21 December 2010. Tu'ivakano was elected by 14 votes to 12.


2010 Tongan general election, Government formation
On 31 December Tu'ivakano named his cabinet, which included six people's representatives, three nobles, and two commoners appointed from outside Parliament.


2010 Tonight Show conflict
The 2010 Tonight Show conflict was a media and public relations conflict involving the American television network NBC and two of its late-night talk show hosts, Conan O'Brien and Jay Leno, over the timeslot and hosting duties of long-running franchise The Tonight Show.


2010 Tonight Show conflict
Leno, the host of The Tonight Show since 1992, and O'Brien, host of Late Night since 1993, were strong ratings leaders for NBC for much of the decade. In 2001, when O'Brien's contract neared its end and he was courted by other networks, NBC agreed to extend his contract and eventually make him the fifth host of The Tonight Show. The network neglected to tell Leno about this arrangement until 2004, when they informed him that O'Brien would take over as host in five years. When that time arrived, in 2009, NBC tried to keep both of its late-night stars by offering Leno a nightly primetime show before the local news and O'Brien's Tonight Show.


2010 Tonight Show conflict
The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien and The Jay Leno Show did not immediately receive strong ratings, and NBC affiliates complained of declining viewership. NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Zucker, alongside NBC chairman Jeff Gaspin and executive Rick Ludwin, created a remedy: return Leno to his 11:35 pm start time and bump O'Brien a half-hour later, to 12:05 am. O'Brien and his staff were disappointed and furious; when it became clear O'Brien would not agree to the proposed changes, the situation grew heated. Though not a breach of either host's contract, the change resulted in a public outcry and public demonstrations largely in support of O'Brien.


2010 Tonight Show conflict
O'Brien's public statement that he would "not participate in the destruction of The Tonight Show" led to negotiations with NBC for a settlement. O'Brien and his staff received US$45 million (equivalent to about $53 million in 2020) to walk away from the network, with his final Tonight Show airing January 22, 2010; Leno was reinstated as host that March, while after a contractual seven-month ban on appearing on television, O'Brien moved to TBS to host Conan. The controversy surrounding the scheduling move and the reinstatement of Leno was described by media outlets as "embarrassing" and a "public relations disaster" for NBC.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Background
On May 22, 1992, Johnny Carson, host of NBC's The Tonight Show for nearly thirty years, retired from the program at the age of 66. NBC signed Jay Leno, Carson's "permanent guest host", to become the program's fourth host upon Carson's exit. Carson clearly held the view that the position should be given to David Letterman, host of his own program, Late Night, which had directly followed Carson's Tonight Show for ten years.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Background
NBC tried to appease both stars, but Letterman left the network in a very public conflict that resulted in the creation of his own competing show on CBS, which began in 1993. Late Show with David Letterman, "the first truly substantial competing franchise to Tonight", regularly won in the Nielsen ratings against Leno for two years, "proving for the first time that late-night television—and the profits that came with it—could exist beyond The Tonight Show."


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Background
Leno's Tonight Show started rocky; prior to Letterman's move, NBC considered matching CBS's offer to allow Letterman to take over from Leno. Letterman beat Leno for nearly two years until August 1995, when Leno welcomed Hugh Grant, who had recently been arrested for soliciting a prostitute ("What the hell were you thinking? ", Leno asked, to applause), to a previously-booked appearance on Tonight. From that point on, Leno beat Letterman in the ratings, and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno remained number one for the next fourteen years (for Leno's entire run).


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Background
NBC chose to continue the Late Night franchise, and at the suggestion of Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels, hired Conan O'Brien, a relatively unknown writer for SNL and The Simpsons, to take over the time slot beginning in late 1993. Late Night with Conan O'Brien was constantly at risk for cancellation in its early years; at one low point in 1994, NBC threatened to put O'Brien on a week-to-week contract. Executives were anxious to replace him with Greg Kinnear, who followed O'Brien with Later at 1:30 am., but Kinnear left to pursue a career in acting later on.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Background
Interns filled empty seats in O'Brien's audience while affiliates began to inquire about replacement hosts. Things improved for Late Night slowly (mostly revolving around O'Brien's performance) and by 1996, O'Brien's audience, largely young and male (a coveted demographic), grew steadily and the show began to beat competitors in the ratings, which it would continue to do for fifteen years.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Background
A notable episode of O'Brien's tenure on Late Night came when Letterman asked to appear as a guest and say some kind words to him. O'Brien considered this the turning point that changed everything for him, which he mentioned while paying tribute to Letterman in an opening monologue of his own talk show on TBS, which aired the same night as Letterman's final show; O'Brien notably asked his viewers to turn him off and watch Letterman later on in the monologue.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Early history, Contract renewals (2001–2004)
Near the turn of the millennium, NBC's late-night lineup—Leno at 11:35, O'Brien at 12:35, and Saturday Night Live on the weekend—remained a leader in the ratings. By 2001, O'Brien's contract at NBC had less than a year left to run, and despite arguably "coming into his own" in the preceding years, the network was reluctant to pay him on the same scale as other late-night hosts. That year, competing network Fox mounted an "extended, comprehensive campaign" to lure O'Brien away from NBC, viewing his style suitable for Fox's image—"young, hip, somewhat subversive".


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Early history, Contract renewals (2001–2004)
News Corporation chairman and CEO Peter Chernin pursued O'Brien personally, taking him and executive producer Jeff Ross to dinner on several occasions. Fox's plan involved making O'Brien the network's signature star: his program would begin thirty minutes before Leno's and Letterman's (the network's local news broadcasts aired earlier than other networks, allowing the head start) and he would receive cross-promotion via its animated programming block and on Sunday NFL games. Chernin also offered the host seven times his current pay (a jump from US$3 million to US$21 million). Ross, friends with NBC president and CEO Jeff Zucker, informed him that Fox was aggressively pursuing O'Brien; NBC returned with a more realistic offer, bumping up O'Brien's salary to US$8 million and renewing him through 2005.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Early history, Contract renewals (2001–2004)
While many of O'Brien's professional advisors and managers pushed for the Fox deal, O'Brien's desire to one day perhaps take over The Tonight Show after Leno made it a difficult decision (O'Brien, like many comedians, had grown up idolizing Carson's incarnation). Chernin warned O'Brien that waiting around for Leno to leave would be "only an invitation to long-term disappointment, and potentially a path toward undermining a promising career."


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Early history, Contract renewals (2001–2004)
Nevertheless, O'Brien signed a new deal with NBC in March 2002; the contract extended him through 2005 and most significantly contained an "explicit Prince of Wales clause" that solidified the official line of succession: If anything were to happen to Leno, O'Brien would step in. O'Brien's successful hosting job at the 2002 54th Primetime Emmy Awards "sent out the most resounding message yet about his growing strength as a performer", and a year later, NBC broadcast O'Brien's tenth anniversary special in primetime.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Early history, Contract renewals (2001–2004)
By the time Leno's contract again came up for renewal, a discussion would be needed regarding the future of The Tonight Show. Facing the prospect of attempting to keep both Leno and O'Brien, Zucker made the final call on Leno's deal: "Yes, we'll extend your deal. But this is your last contract. Time to hand over the keys." The plan would extend Leno four additional years, after which he would give The Tonight Show to O'Brien.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Early history, Contract renewals (2001–2004)
In February 2004, NBC executive Marc Graboff informed Ross of the conversations, and he in turn ran the idea of waiting four more years to O'Brien, who was immediately receptive. Zucker, along with top late-night executive Rick Ludwin, met with Leno in March at his Burbank studio to discuss the contract extension, and explained NBC's stance on handing over the show to O'Brien. While Leno quietly felt both disappointed and befuddled, he noted he did not want to see himself and O'Brien go through the same dilemma he and Letterman faced twelve years earlier and agreed to the plans.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Early history, Contract renewals (2001–2004)
His only request was that NBC wait to announce O'Brien's installment as host well after the extension, to which the executives agreed. While Leno handled the news professionally (to Zucker's relief), he soon headed to Tonight Show producer Debbie Vickers' office to let her know he felt as if he had just been fired. NBC's announcement of the renewal inevitably led to press speculation on O'Brien's fate; to that end, O'Brien and his team went with the charade, peppering interviews with unclear, vague statements on his future.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Early history, Contract renewals (2001–2004)
On September 27, 2004, O'Brien officially signed on to become the next host of The Tonight Show; NBC allowed the first comment aside from the press release to come from Leno on that night's show. "'Cause this, you know, this show is like a dynasty," Leno said. "You hold it, and then you hand it off to the next person. And I don't want to see all the fighting and all the 'Who's better?' and nasty things back and forth in the press. So right now, here it is—Conan, it's yours! See you in five years, buddy!"


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Early history, Losing Leno (2005–2008)
In reality, Leno was incredulous. In private conversations, he likened his removal from The Tonight Show to the end of a relationship, noting that he was loyal and still ended up "heartbroken". From his perspective, NBC's decision made no sense, as his show had remained number one in ratings and consistently brought in money. He began frequently lamenting his confusion to producer Vickers, explaining that he was "sick of lying" when people inquired on his retirement.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Early history, Losing Leno (2005–2008)
Eventually, Leno began mulling over his options after Tonight, telling his staff that after the transition, they could simply move to ABC and work at the Disney lot not far from their current Burbank studio. His frustration with the situation came across in his nightly monologues, as more jokes regarding NBC's fourth-place position in the ratings, as well as jokes regarding the future transition, began to appear. While NBC executives tended to not worry in the immediate years following the decision, by 2007 Zucker began to ponder what losing Leno might mean for the network. Around this time, Fox and ABC began to court Leno privately, conveying interest and holding discreet conversations.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Early history, Losing Leno (2005–2008)
Among the offers made to Leno by NBC's competitors were a lucrative one for a syndicated program by Sony Pictures Television. In early 2008, Zucker began to make trips to the Burbank studio in an effort to keep Leno. He gave him numerous suggestions, including a Bob Hope-type deal (high-profile specials), a Sunday night primetime show, or even a nightly cable show on USA Network (owned by NBCUniversal). Executives began to entertain an ideal solution—pay off O'Brien and retain Leno—but Zucker viewed the idea as "outrageous".


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Early history, Losing Leno (2005–2008)
By this time, NBC had already broken ground on a new studio for O'Brien's Tonight Show, renovating Stage 1 at the Universal lot in Universal City, for a reported US$50 million. During a spring lunch meeting with Ross, NBC Sports chief Dick Ebersol advised that O'Brien retire silly antics (such as his signature "string dance") and focus more on pitching his show to middle America, which would involve stretching out his monologue.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Early history, Losing Leno (2005–2008)
O'Brien, then a year away from inheriting The Tonight Show, was indeed lengthening his monologue, but viewed suggestions from Ludwin as largely unnecessary: "I think people are overthinking the twelve-thirty-to-eleven-thirty shift", he said, instead desiring to put his own stamp on the show's tradition. By this point, O'Brien's high popularity at the time of the contract signing had gone down slightly.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Early history, Losing Leno (2005–2008)
He had opted not to change his act to suit a more mainstream audience as NBC imagined he would, and CBS's Craig Ferguson, who occupied the post-Letterman slot as host of The Late Late Show, had begun to occasionally beat O'Brien in overall ratings. Though internal anxiety increased among executives, most tended to still support O'Brien.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Early history, Losing Leno (2005–2008)
Zucker's last resort for Leno was a nightly 10 pm program. As ratings had slipped entirely for 10 pm shows on NBC, he imagined a nightly Leno in that timeslot could perhaps produce a "paradigm shift" and reverse NBC's fortunes. On December 8, 2008, Leno verbally agreed to stay at the network—producing a nightly 10 pm variety show titled The Jay Leno Show—and phoned ABC and Fox to inform them.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Early history, Losing Leno (2005–2008)
Zucker and Ludwin planned to meet with O'Brien later to explain the deal, but as word leaked out to The New York Times, they decided to meet with him directly following that night's show. Following the meeting, Ross and O'Brien met with writers and mulled over the decision. O'Brien instantly felt uneasy, but as he was still in essence receiving The Tonight Show, he remained calm. Late Night with Conan O'Brien officially signed off the following February, followed by The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on May 29.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Early history, Losing Leno (2005–2008)
Much of O'Brien's entire staff moved cross-country to Los Angeles to prepare his version of The Tonight Show. He and his staff threw themselves into developing the program, but remained concerned regarding NBC's commitment—or lack of one. Meanwhile, senior-level executives at NBC predicted that Leno's show would be roundly beaten by hour-long dramas on competing networks and cable, dooming the network's experiment.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Early history, Losing Leno (2005–2008)
In announcing his 10 pm show on The Tonight Show, Leno said, "People are asking me, 'What are you going to do after the last show? Are you going to go on vacation?' This kind of stuff. Actually, I'm going to a secluded spot where no one can find me: NBC primetime. As most of you know, we're not really leaving. We're coming back at 10 o'clock in September. It's a gamble. It's a gamble. I'm betting everything that NBC will still be around in three months! That is not a given!"


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Ratings, The Tonight Show and The Jay Leno Show debut
The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien pulled in over nine million viewers to its June 1, 2009, premiere, doing extremely well in the coveted young demographics. Critics were generally very favorable; Tom Shales of The Washington Post, once an O'Brien detractor, wrote that, "There's every indication that O'Brien will be up to the job of his illustrious predecessors." Each night, older audiences gradually turned off the program as it aired; seven episodes later, Letterman's show had edged above O'Brien's for the first time.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Ratings, The Tonight Show and The Jay Leno Show debut
While Zucker called O'Brien to reiterate that the generational change was expected, other executives were not as pleased. O'Brien and his team were not happy with the lack of promotion in the show's early weeks. Against the wishes of several PR executives, Zucker authorized a press release proclaiming O'Brien "the New King of Late Night", a move that attracted ridicule. Zucker later regretted the decision, and many at O'Brien's Tonight Show offices were displeased.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Ratings, The Tonight Show and The Jay Leno Show debut
Over the following weeks, Zucker grew weary with O'Brien's performance and what he regarded as a booking of the wrong stars. When a controversy erupted over a joke Letterman told regarding politician Sarah Palin's family, Zucker eagerly pushed the O'Brien camp to bring her on their show, eyeing an opportunity to regain viewers and perhaps make it a turning point for a show not doing particularly well. O'Brien disliked the idea, finding it pandering to viewers that would alienate fans and the press, as well as hurt his relationship with Letterman.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Ratings, The Tonight Show and The Jay Leno Show debut
"This reaction drove Zucker nuts", wrote Bill Carter in The War for Late Night. "As a producer, he knew how to manipulate audiences—that was simply what you did as part of the job. [ ... ] As a boss, he couldn't believe Conan would stand in the way of what was obviously the smart business move—for him and his network."


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Ratings, The Tonight Show and The Jay Leno Show debut
Meanwhile, Letterman continued to score higher ratings than O'Brien with regularity; his fall interview with U.S. President Barack Obama topped The Tonight Show by over 2.6 million viewers, and the next week, a scandal involving attempted extortion and personal affairs made Letterman the talk of the country. By August, The Tonight Show was still losing to Letterman in total viewers, but, owing to O'Brien's appeal to a young audience, maintained its lead in the touted demographics.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Ratings, The Tonight Show and The Jay Leno Show debut
Meanwhile, Leno was candid regarding his plans for his new show: "Even though it's ten o'clock, we're going to pretend it's eleven thirty." The Jay Leno Show premiered on September 14, 2009, featuring guests Jerry Seinfeld and Kanye West, shortly after West's infamous rant against Taylor Swift at the MTV Video Music Awards. The program racked up 18.4 million viewers, doing much better than O'Brien's Tonight Show debut in both overall numbers and young demographics. Some critics were harsh with Leno's program, with many viewing it as a rehash of the show he had just left.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Ratings, The Tonight Show and The Jay Leno Show debut
Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times said one of its sponsors' commercials was funnier than the show itself, saying, "This is the future of television? This wasn't even a good rendition of television past." By the show's second week, which saw it airing directly opposite season premieres, The Jay Leno Show saw its audience size fall to six million viewers. As the weeks wore on, producer Vickers noticed that NBC's plan—to save the best segments, such as Leno's signature "Headlines", for last in order to provide a strong lead-in for local news—was possibly hurting the program. One month in, Leno often only made third place, and executives became more uneasy.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Ratings, Slipping numbers
Ratings for NBC affiliates' local news broadcasts at 11 pm began to slip by mid-October, especially on NBC owned-and-operated stations in the largest markets, creating high anxiety for the network. The Tonight Show still retained a slightly higher share of the coveted 18–24 demographic against Letterman, but saw those numbers slip even more when The Jay Leno Show began. Affiliates began to complain, and in addition to a domino effect on the local news, O'Brien, and his 12:30 am successor, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, the disastrous ratings for Leno had damaged NBC's existing primetime lineups.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Ratings, Slipping numbers
This cascading effect caused by the lowered 10 pm lead-in was so significant that local news viewership fell an average of twenty-five percent nationwide, with the decline in some markets being as high as fifty percent. By November, two months after the debut of The Jay Leno Show, ratings for The Tonight Show were brought down "roughly two million viewers a night year-to-year" from when Leno hosted the program.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Ratings, Slipping numbers
Clearing the 10 pm time period for Leno also damaged relations with the producers of scripted shows that previously occupied that slot, such as Dick Wolf of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Leno offered an October 29 interview to Broadcasting & Cable, which included a notable exchange on the possibility of ever returning to the 11:35 slot: "If it were offered to me, would I take it? If that's what they wanted to do, sure. That would be fine if they wanted to." Industry trades were abuzz over the 11:35 comment, and when Conan sidekick Andy Richter called the move less than "classy" in a chat with TV Squad, Leno called Ludwin to complain.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Ratings, Slipping numbers
As most programs went into repeats in December, Leno's staff, notably Vickers, had focused on grabbing big-name guests for that month in an effort to save The Jay Leno Show; these efforts were cut short when she was informed they had "until the end of November". Affiliate calls came at an alarming rate, and research analysis revealed O'Brien's drastically reduced median age for The Tonight Show—age 56 to 46—could possibly reflect that he was too "niche" for the earlier time.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Ratings, Slipping numbers
Any effort to take Leno off the air was halted by his contract, which had a highly unusual "pay-and-play" provision, in contrast to the typical "pay-or-play" agreement, which guaranteed NBC would both air his program and pay him for up to two years. On November 6, NBC chairman Jeff Gaspin received an email from the sales division with a suggestion to cancel O'Brien and reinstate Leno as host of The Tonight Show. Upon Gaspin's legal interpretation of Leno's contract, the option to simply move Leno back to The Tonight Show became relevant. When very poor ratings came in for the November sweeps period, affiliates became alarmed, and NBC board members demanded something be done regarding the 10 pm lead-in.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Ratings, Slipping numbers
If something were not done by January, the affiliates reasoned, they would instate syndicated programming or move up their news broadcasts and pre-empt The Jay Leno Show. Desperate for a decision, Ludwin, Gaspin, and Zucker kicked around possible solutions for their dilemma, such as cutting Leno to a few nights per week. In an attempt to alleviate the situation, Vickers moved the most popular comedy segments to the second act of The Jay Leno Show, moving their "10 at 10" segment to later in the broadcast.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Ratings, Slipping numbers
Gaspin again received the suggestion to put Leno back at 11:35, and soon began working on a plan to cut The Jay Leno Show to a half-hour, leading into Conan's Tonight Show around midnight. From their perspective, the biggest casualty in this scenario would be Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, which would get bumped to 1 am. The reconfigured lineup could start in March 2010, following NBC's coverage of the Winter Olympics.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Ratings, Slipping numbers
Zucker preferred a plan for Leno to include an occasional guest and comedy piece, while Ebersol favored returning to the way it once was, with Leno at 11:35 and O'Brien at 12:35. Gaspin laid out his plan to Zucker one week before Christmas, but both agreed to wait it out for the new year, as to not "ruin anybody's holiday season".


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Conflict, Proposed changes
It struck Conan that Jay had played it well, in his passive-aggressive way, and wound up winning again. And maybe, in contrast, he himself had simply played it all wrong.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Conflict, Proposed changes
The plan moved forward after confirmation that O'Brien's contract did not guarantee a strict 11:35pm start time (a loophole included primarily to accommodate sports pre-emptions and specials such as the network's New Year coverage). Gaspin planned to disclose the news to Leno first, and then, if all went well, inform O'Brien the following week. When Gaspin laid out the proposal to Leno and Vickers, the response was positive, even though they questioned how such a plan would work.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Conflict, Proposed changes
Gaspin reasoned that NBC was in a desperate situation, and he indicated his confidence that O'Brien would go along with the changes too. While Leno embraced the plan, Vickers was unnerved; without a guest or music act, she might have no studio audience, which could have disastrous consequences for Leno. In order to meet with O'Brien the following Monday, Gaspin was forced to cancel a meeting with the affiliate board, but promised them that by doing so, he would have an answer to the 10 pm problem that would "likely be something [they'd be] happy with". After his January 6 show, O'Brien met with manager Gavin Polone, and lamented his anxiety with the ratings: "I just think [Leno] is going to hurt me in some way."


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Conflict, Proposed changes
News regarding Leno leaked to FTV Live by the following morning, which set the Internet abuzz with rumors regarding both Leno's and O'Brien's fates. Gaspin scheduled an immediate meeting with Ross and O'Brien as soon as they arrived and explained the proposed changes. "I know how hard I worked for this", responded O'Brien. "It was promised to me. I had a shitty lead-in." Following the tense fifteen-minute meeting, O'Brien and Ross returned to the Tonight studio. TMZ reported on the story with a headline reading, "NBC Shakeup; Jay Leno Comes Out on Top."


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Conflict, Proposed changes
O'Brien called an emergency staff meeting and assured all that they had not been canceled and all would be fine. The TMZ story deeply bothered O'Brien ("the timing of the leak to TMZ—coming so soon after a story that Jay had been canceled—screamed of an attempt at diversionary action"), and he and Ross reasoned that they indeed were the last to be told of the changes.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Conflict, Proposed changes
By the following morning, O'Brien and Ross determined that they would have to leave NBC, and O'Brien opened that night's show with, "We've got a great show for you tonight—I have no idea when it will air, but it's gonna be a great show." Polone viewed the move as a reactionary one by Zucker, concluding that he was acting in self-preservation, since NBCUniversal owner General Electric (GE) was in the process of negotiating the sale of a controlling interest in the company to cable operator Comcast.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Conflict, Proposed changes
When a story ran that night on The New York Times website that Fox had an "overt interest" in O'Brien and was not going along with the plan, Zucker reasoned that Polone was to blame. The situation became heated when Zucker placed a call to O'Brien's agent, Rick Rosen, inquiring on the story and demanding an immediate answer from the O'Brien camp. Gaspin spoke about the situation at a previously scheduled press conference that Sunday, noting that, "I obviously couldn't satisfy either with 100 percent of what they wanted. That's why I came up with this compromise."


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Conflict, Proposed changes
Zucker, upon hearing that O'Brien still did not take the proposal well, threatened Rosen, saying "I'm going to tell you right now that I can pay him or play him. I can ice you guys." On the following Monday's show, O'Brien continued jokes on the subject; responding to thunderous applause, he joked, "You keep that up, and this monologue won't start until 12:05."


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Conflict, "People of Earth"
Rosen suggested that O'Brien's camp hire "perhaps the best known (and most feared) litigation lawyer in Hollywood", Patty Glaser, to help grasp the situation. Following discussions on Leno's contract during a post-show conference, Glaser turned her attention to O'Brien for his opinion. He expressed his desire to write a statement expressing his feelings on the matter, and after hearing what he would possibly say in such a statement, Glaser agreed to the idea, although Ross was initially reluctant. O'Brien went without sleep that night, crafting his statement obsessively.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Conflict, "People of Earth"
He returned to the Tonight studio the following morning, listening as the lawyers and Glaser read over the statement (it remained largely unchanged before publication). According to Bill Carter, Glaser found "the statement as ideal for their purposes. It laid out Conan's point of view unequivocally, but without compromising his legal options. Nothing in there overtly said he was quitting, so he could not be accused of forsaking his contractual obligations."


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Conflict, "People of Earth"
O'Brien's press release went out mid-day on January 12, which he addressed to "People of Earth":


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Conflict, "People of Earth"
For 60 years the Tonight Show has aired immediately following the late local news. I sincerely believe that delaying the Tonight Show into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting. The Tonight Show at 12:05 simply isn't the Tonight Show. [ ... ] So it has come to this: I cannot express in words how much I enjoy hosting this program and what an enormous personal disappointment it is for me to consider losing it. My staff and I have worked unbelievably hard and we are very proud of our contribution to the legacy of The Tonight Show. But I cannot participate in what I honestly believe is its destruction.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Conflict, "People of Earth"
According to Bill Carter, "the 'People of Earth' letter—the manifesto, as NBC came to call it—changed the tone of the conflict. No longer was Conan merely declining NBC's compromise, but leveling harsh public criticism at the network." However, the moment that "represented the point of no return" came that Wednesday night, as a "clearly liberated" O'Brien joked in his monologue, "I'm trying very hard to stay positive here, and I want to tell you something. This is honest. Hosting The Tonight Show has been the fulfillment of a lifelong dream for me.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Conflict, "People of Earth"
And I just want to say to the kids out there watching: You can do anything you want in life. Yeah, yeah—unless Jay Leno wants to do it, too." Following the joke, Leno called Gaspin, asking, "Why the fuck am I giving up a half hour for this guy?" Conversations changed to focus on what O'Brien would require to resolve the matter, and parties began to discuss a settlement.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Reaction and media coverage, Public support for O'Brien
Public reaction was overwhelmingly in favor of O'Brien during the conflict. In the days following the switch announcement, 88% of related Twitter posts expressed support for O'Brien. Over one million people joined the two most prominent Facebook groups supporting O'Brien: "Team Conan" and "I'm With Coco" (referring to an on-air nickname applied to O'Brien during his Tonight Show reign). Artist Mike Mitchell designed a poster reminiscent of the Obama "Hope" poster, showing O'Brien superimposed with an American flag in the background and the caption "I'm With Coco". The poster was widely circulated and displayed online and at various rallies. The color orange also became the choice of color for O'Brien fans, referencing his light orange hair. O'Brien's overnight ratings began to shoot up (much to NBC's chagrin), and the viral support for O'Brien only increased by the week of his final shows.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Reaction and media coverage, Public support for O'Brien
Rallies in support of O'Brien were organized outside NBC studios across the U.S., notably in Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, and New York City. O'Brien briefly appeared at a January 18 rally outside the Tonight Show studio, after which he gave the crowd free pizza. Andy Richter and Tonight Show drummer Max Weinberg also made an appearance during the rally to speak to the crowd from atop the studio, and Tonight Show Band trombonist Richie "La Bamba" Rosenberg was driven around the crowd in a Popemobile-style vehicle. American Red Cross representatives were at a number of the rallies to collect money for the Haiti earthquake relief.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Reaction and media coverage, Public support for O'Brien
Many in Hollywood expressed support for O'Brien, including Roger Ebert, Sarah Silverman, Will Ferrell, Jim Gaffigan, Jeff Garlin, Jim Carrey, Aziz Ansari, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd, Paul F. Tompkins, Doug Benson, Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, Alyssa Milano, Chris Parnell, Marlee Matlin, Judd Apatow Ben Stiller, Ice-T, Matthew Perry, Norm Macdonald, Howard Stern, and Ricky Gervais. SNL's Seth Meyers addressed the controversy on the program's Weekend Update segment, joking that the conflict showed that "you don't need Cinemax to see someone get screwed on TV", and then proceeding to defend O'Brien. Meyers went on to sarcastically point out that if they did end up moving The Tonight Show, it would mean Late Night would end and host Jimmy Fallon would likely end up coming back to Update (and presumably reclaim his job from Meyers).


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Reaction and media coverage, Criticism of Leno
Leno faced heated criticism and increasing negative publicity for his perceived role in the timeslot conflict, with some critics predicting that his reputation—along with those of Zucker and NBC—had been permanently damaged by the incident. Critics pointed to the 2004 Tonight Show clip wherein Leno claimed he would allow O'Brien to take over without incident.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Reaction and media coverage, Criticism of Leno
Actor and comedian Patton Oswalt was among the first celebrities to openly voice disappointment with Leno, saying, "Comedians who don't like Jay Leno now, and I'm one of them, we're not like, 'Jay Leno sucks;' it's that we're so hurt and disappointed that one of the best comedians of our generation… willfully has shut the switch off." Rosie O'Donnell was among O'Brien's most vocal and vehement supporters, calling Leno a "bully" and his actions "classless and kind of career-defining".


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Reaction and media coverage, Criticism of Leno
Howard Stern was a harsh critic of Leno before and after the timeslot change announcement; Stern had previously appeared on Late Night in 2006, and told O'Brien that he felt it was unlikely that Leno would ever willingly give up Tonight to anyone. The 67th Golden Globe Awards, which NBC aired on January 17 during O'Brien's settlement negotiations, featured numerous jokes on the controversy by Tina Fey and Tom Hanks, as well as show host Ricky Gervais who quipped, "Let's get on with it before NBC replaces me with Jay Leno."


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Reaction and media coverage, Criticism of Leno
Additional criticism stemmed from the fact that the circumstances O'Brien found himself in recalled a similar dilemma that faced Leno toward the end of 1992. Only months into his hosting job on The Tonight Show, NBC considered reversing their decision to choose Leno over Letterman. Leno was aghast and angry that NBC refused to exhibit clear commitment to him as the franchise's new host, and expressed this disappointment publicly. He also made explicit that he would leave the network if he was asked to move back an hour to accommodate Letterman, saying, "I'm not going to do some little happy hour from Omaha at 12:30."


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Reaction and media coverage, Criticism of Leno
Commentators also faulted Leno for what they perceived as a disingenuous attempt on the host's part to forge an "everyman" persona in the way he carried himself throughout the controversy. During the episode of The Jay Leno Show that aired after it was made public that Leno had been offered the 11:35 time slot back, Leno portrayed himself as an ingenuous employee merely following NBC's instructions, making a point of stating, "I don't have a manager, I don't have an agent" and referring to his preference of making direct, "handshake" deals. Despite his claim of having no representation, Leno retained an agent (Steve Levine of International Creative Management), a publicist, and entertainment lawyers.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Reaction and media coverage, Criticism of Leno
Comedian Bill Burr found that Leno's ambition to take back The Tonight Show was less objectionable than his "passive-aggressive" behavior and the "powerless" public image Leno put forth instead of "owning up" to his maneuverings. Burr argued that NBC "never gave [Conan] The Tonight Show" in terms of network support, saying, "When Jay got The Tonight Show, he didn't have to follow Johnny [Carson] bombing for an hour. [ ... ] Leno struggled for eighteen months before he got going, and he got to go on after a hit show."


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Reaction and media coverage, Criticism of Leno
Comedian Jeff Garlin accused NBC of being "cheap", suggesting that the network tempted O'Brien with his dream job of hosting The Tonight Show because they did not want him to go to a competitor, but neither did they want to match what the competitors were offering. Garlin accused Leno of undermining O'Brien's incipient Tonight Show by taking the 10 pm slot. Garlin stated that while Leno had been nice to him over the years, the host displayed "no character" by taking the timeslot back. Garlin vowed never to appear on Leno's Tonight Show thereafter.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Reaction and media coverage, Criticism of Leno
In an essay for The Wall Street Journal, Nathan Rabin wrote that Leno had "raced past the reviled likes of Dane Cook and Carlos Mencia on the list of popular stand-ups hated by comedians and comedy writers." Bill Zehme, the co-author of Leno's autobiography Leading with My Chin, told the Los Angeles Times, "The thing Leno should do is walk, period. He's got everything to lose in terms of public popularity by going back. People will look at him differently. He'll be viewed as the bad guy." Joe Queenan from The Wall Street Journal went further in his criticism of Leno, jokingly comparing the controversy to Adolf Hitler's annexation of Czechoslovakia.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Reaction and media coverage, Criticism of Leno
David Letterman was one of the more adamant critics of NBC and Leno's handling of the conflict. He noted that, "We went through our own version of this seventeen, eighteen years ago", and he ridiculed Leno's recent "state of the network address", wherein Leno pleaded for viewers not to "blame Conan", with Letterman noting, "In the thousands and thousands of words that have been printed about this mess, who has blamed Conan?"


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Reaction and media coverage, Criticism of Leno
Jon Stewart of Comedy Central's The Daily Show reflected on the controversy, saying, "At least we don't have to deal with Jeff Zucker. That guy's like the Cheney of television, shooting shows in the face." Stewart also shouted "Team Conan" as his "Moment of Zen" at the end of the January 21 episode of The Daily Show. Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report asked guest Morgan Freeman to read a list of "untrustworthy things", one of which paraphrased a statement made by Leno in 2004, "Conan: The 11:30 slot? Yours."


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Reaction and media coverage, Criticism of Leno
Jimmy Kimmel, host of the ABC late night show Jimmy Kimmel Live!, donned a gray wig and fake chin to perform his entire January 12 show in character as Leno. With his bandleader Cleto Escobedo parodying Leno's bandleader Kevin Eubanks, Kimmel began his monologue with, "It's good to be here on ABC. Hey, Cleto, you know what ABC stands for? Always Bump Conan." He also referenced the "People of Earth" letter, noting how O'Brien declined to participate in the "destruction" of The Tonight Show, commenting as Leno that, "Fortunately, though, I will! I'll burn it down if I have to!"


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Reaction and media coverage, Criticism of Leno
Leno called Kimmel the next morning to discuss the bit, and at the end of the call, Leno suggested Kimmel come over and appear on his show. When his booking department called to confirm his appearance on a "10 at 10" segment (in which Leno asked ten questions to a guest appearing remotely via satellite), Kimmel agreed immediately. When he received the questions for his January 14 appearance—such as "What's your favorite snack junk food? "—he realized Leno intended to neutralize the scathing parody and paint the two as friends.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Reaction and media coverage, Criticism of Leno
During his appearance, however, Kimmel made it clear that he wanted to discuss the conflict with Conan and NBC, and tried to direct the conversation toward that topic. When asked about his favorite prank, he responded, "I think the best prank I ever pulled was, I told a guy once, 'Five years from now I'm going to give you my show.' And then when the five years came, I gave it to him and I took it back, almost instantly." Later in the segment, when Leno asked, "Ever order anything off the TV?" Kimmel replied, "Like when NBC ordered your show off the TV?"


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Reaction and media coverage, Criticism of Leno
Following similar remarks to more questions, Kimmel closed the segment with this comment: "Listen, Jay. Conan and I have children. All you have to take care of is cars! We have lives to lead here! You've got eight hundred million dollars! For God's sakes, leave our shows alone!" Leno did not argue and accepted the bit as comedy, ascribing Kimmel's conduct as an attempt to score some publicity, but producer Vickers was furious.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Reaction and media coverage, Criticism of Leno
Kimmel discussed the appearance during an interview with Marc Maron for the latter's podcast in 2012. Kimmel stated that he felt O'Brien was not given a proper chance, but that he was also motivated by his own history with Leno. According to Kimmel, Leno had some years prior been in serious discussions with ABC about the possibility of jumping ship from NBC. During this period, Leno initiated a friendship with Kimmel, wanting to ensure that they would be on good terms if the move was made. (Under that scenario, Leno would have taken Kimmel's time slot and become his lead-in.) However, after Leno made the arrangement to remain at NBC, Kimmel related, "those conversations were gone." Concluding that Leno's relationship with him had been a pretext, Kimmel felt "worked over," reasoning that Leno was using the ABC discussions as a bargaining tactic to try to get his old job back.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Reaction and media coverage, Neutrality of Jimmy Fallon
The only late night host who remained neutral was Jimmy Fallon, calling O'Brien and Leno "two of my heroes and two of my friends". He later joked that, "There's been three hosts of Late Night: David Letterman, Conan O'Brien, and me. And if there's one thing I've learned from Dave and Conan, it's that hosting this show is a one-way ticket to not hosting The Tonight Show." Ironically, Fallon was selected to replace the retiring Leno as host of The Tonight Show in February 2014.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Reaction and media coverage, Defense of Leno and criticism of O'Brien
The comedians who came out in defense of Leno were far fewer and tended to have a professional or personal relationship with the host. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Jerry Seinfeld rebuffed the idea that NBC deserved blame and chastised O'Brien for pointing fingers:


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Reaction and media coverage, Defense of Leno and criticism of O'Brien
"What did the network do to him?" Seinfeld asked. "I don't think anyone's preventing people from watching Conan. Once they give you the cameras, it's on you. I can't blame NBC for having to move things around. I hope Conan stays, I think he's terrific. But there's no rules in show business, there's no [referees]."


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Reaction and media coverage, Defense of Leno and criticism of O'Brien
The irony of Seinfeld's stance was noted by at least one publication, as Seinfeld had itself weathered a rocky beginning thanks to the patience of NBC executive Rick Ludwin, the benefit of a strong lead-in (Cheers), and years to develop its audience as opposed to O'Brien's six months.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Reaction and media coverage, Defense of Leno and criticism of O'Brien
Jim Norton, who was a frequent contributor to Leno's shows, touched on the controversy repeatedly in interviews and on The Opie & Anthony Show, calling the harsh criticism of Leno "amazing" and suggesting that Leno declining to walk away after stating otherwise was no worse than O'Brien "actually trying to force Jay out by telling the agents, 'If Conan doesn't get The Tonight Show, he's leaving the network.'"


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Reaction and media coverage, Defense of Leno and criticism of O'Brien
NBC executives served as Leno's chief defenders, with Dick Ebersol being particularly aggressive. Calling Leno's detractors "chicken-hearted and gutless," he summarized the late night situation as an "astounding failure" by O'Brien and further characterized O'Brien's and Letterman's barbed jokes about their rival as "professional jealousy." Addressing the common point about Conan's weak lead-in hurting his ability to build an audience in a different timeslot, Ebersol dismissed it as a "specious argument."


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Reaction and media coverage, Defense of Leno and criticism of O'Brien
In an interview with Marc Maron that summer, O'Brien's longtime sidekick Andy Richter noted the contradiction between Ebersol's comments and the actions of the network. The demonstrable impact of The Jay Leno Show on the ratings of local news across the country was the direct cause of the cancellation of The Jay Leno Show, and gave lie to Ebersol's implication that lead-ins are irrelevant. Leno's Tonight Show, in contrast, had always enjoyed healthy lead-ins courtesy of a strong NBC primetime line-up. Furthermore, the network would have reportedly faced a US$150 million penalty in order to break their contract with Leno, making O'Brien the far less expensive host to get rid of.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Reaction and media coverage, Defense of Leno and criticism of O'Brien
Leno himself was among O'Brien's harshest critics, calling his numbers "destructive to the franchise" despite O'Brien's success in the advertiser-friendly demographics combined with his significantly smaller salary. Moreover, Leno's assessment of O'Brien's performance less than three months prior had been significantly different: "Personally, I think Conan is doing fine. He's beating Dave in the demo, maybe not in the popular one right now because Dave has a lot of other things going that have people watching for whatever reason, so I think that's not really a fair thing. It's a little too early to tell."


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Settlement, Negotiations
Discussions neared completion regarding a financial settlement by January 14, and were expected to be in place following O'Brien's final week of shows—January 18–22—a concession O'Brien pushed to give his program a proper farewell. Movement on the settlement slowed when run by GE executives, then-owners of NBCUniversal. NBC had several requests, among those that he not bring Howard Stern on the show his final week (which the O'Brien camp found slightly comical), and that they see the show's final week of scripts (which O'Brien never sent).


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Settlement, Negotiations
Talks for much of the rest of the week went nowhere, and a Saturday New York Post story ran claiming that O'Brien's staff felt "betrayed" by his actions, as they did not understand his refusal to accept the 12:05 timeslot in order to keep their jobs and was driven by egocentric concerns. O'Brien was infuriated by the story, which he assumed to be a direct plant from NBC, as nearly all of his staff agreed that he should leave the network. He was personally appalled that the network challenged his character, as stressing severance for his employees was enormously important to him (he had paid them out of his own pocket during the writers' strike three years earlier).


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Settlement, Negotiations
NBC added more requests, which the O'Brien camp refused as unreasonable, such as the right to pull any of his final shows if the network objected to the content (e.g., a joke about the conflict/NBC). GE chairman Jeffrey Immelt questioned why they were paying so much for a performer destined to run to another network. Negotiations continued into O'Brien's final week; he could not confirm on-air it was indeed his final week of shows, which produced difficulty in booking the guests he desired for his final show.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Settlement, Negotiations
On January 19, multiple media outlets reported that O'Brien and NBC were close to signing a deal between US$30 and US$40 million for the host to walk away from the network. Following his January 20 episode, O'Brien remained at the studio until the early morning hours, alongside Ross and the legal counsel, trying to finalize the settlement. O'Brien wandered off, playing his guitar alone and stepping out on the deserted Universal lot at midnight, attempting to make sense of the situation. O'Brien signed the agreement that night, and the next day, its terms were made public.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Settlement, Negotiations
In all, O'Brien received a US$45 million deal to leave NBC. He received pay for the remaining two years of his contract (amounting to US$33 million), with additional payments to Ross, Richter, and bandleader Max Weinberg. The severance pay for his staff was above standard GE levels (amounting in all to US$12 million), which O'Brien had stressed. O'Brien paid around fifty stagehands and various crew members at least six weeks severance pay out of his own pocket, as NBC gave those particular staffers nothing in the settlement.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Settlement, Negotiations
The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees said that they were "very happy" with how O'Brien treated his employees during the conflict. The contract contained a clause prohibiting O'Brien from making negative remarks about NBC for a certain amount of time; it did not, however, contain the previously rumored "mitigation clause", in which NBC would be able to keep some of the severance pay after O'Brien found a new network. It stipulated that he could return to television on another network no earlier than September 1, 2010.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Settlement, Final week
The conflict only provided more comedy material for O'Brien's Tonight Show during its final episodes. Among other bits, O'Brien put the show up for sale on Craigslist ("Guaranteed to last for up to seven months; designed for 11:35, but can easily be moved!


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Settlement, Final week
"), and then himself; looked back at clips from the show's seven-month tenure that were dubbed "Classic Tonight Show Moments"; and designed a bit to seem as though he were spending absurd amounts of NBC's money, such as customizing a Bugatti Veyron, playing audio and video clips with expensive rebroadcast rights, and using a purported "rare ground sloth" to spray Beluga caviar on what was presented as an original Picasso. Because the segments aired in days immediately following the 2010 Haiti earthquake while national fundraising efforts (including some spearheaded by NBC) were ongoing, O'Brien received criticism for wasting resources. In response to the outcry over the expense of these sketches, O'Brien explained that the segments were indeed jokes, and many of the props were either counterfeits or borrowed in exchange for promotional consideration.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Settlement, Final week
The guest roster for O'Brien's final show on January 22—Tom Hanks, Steve Carell and original first guest Will Ferrell—was regarded by O'Brien as a "dream lineup"; in addition, Neil Young performed his song "Long May You Run" and, as the show closed, was joined by O'Brien, Beck, Ferrell (dressed as Ronnie Van Zant), Billy Gibbons, Ben Harper, Viveca Paulin, and The Tonight Show Band to perform the Lynyrd Skynyrd song "Free Bird".


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Settlement, Final week
In his final moments on air, O'Brien stated that between Saturday Night Live, Late Night and The Tonight Show, he had worked for NBC for over twenty years, and he was "enormously proud of the work they have done together". He then thanked NBC for the first time since announcing his intention to quit. O'Brien said his decision to quit as host was "the hardest thing [he] ever had to do". He praised and gave thanks to his staff, and thanked his fans (specifically those who participated in the Los Angeles rally during periods of heavy rain) for their overwhelming support. He ended the show by offering heartfelt advice to his viewers in his farewell address, stating:


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Settlement, Final week
All I ask of you is one thing ... I ask this particularly of the young people who watch. Please don't be cynical. I hate cynicism. For the record, it's my least favorite quality and it doesn't lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen. I'm telling you, amazing things will happen.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Settlement, Final week
Following the taping, the studio set was used one final time for a party thrown by staff. O'Brien's monologue spot from the floor was framed and signed by his staff as a gift, which touched O'Brien. 10.3 million people watched the final episode of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien, a notably high number for live late-night viewing and on a Friday night. The final episode scored a 7.0 household rating and a 4.4 rating in the 18–49 demo.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Settlement, Final week
Not only did O'Brien's final show beat all late night competition, it outscored all prime time shows in the 18–49 demo from that night and the night before. The network confirmed that Leno would officially resume as host of The Tonight Show on March 1, and reruns from O'Brien's time as host aired until NBC began airing the Winter Olympics on February 15.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Settlement, Final week
Leno's first Tonight Show back pulled in 6.6 million viewers, and his margin over Letterman again held for much of the rest of his run until his second Tonight Show departure in 2014. While his numbers were down from his original incarnation of The Tonight Show, "It's as if a collective erase button was pushed", said Robert Thompson, professor of television at Syracuse University, "with the usual suspects back in their usual locations—except Conan is gone."


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Impact
According to NBC, if O'Brien continued hosting, it would have been the first year that The Tonight Show would have actually lost money, which Leno later contended was damaging to the franchise. This assertion was scorned by skeptical critics, as it was calculated that Conan's Tonight Show would have made significantly more money in advertising than Leno's show did, due to his more favorable youth demographic numbers. Also Leno's larger staff, higher production costs, and higher salary would have by all accounts made Leno's Tonight Show more costly.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Impact
O'Brien and Ross also challenged this notion, concluding that to arrive at such a calculation, NBC must have included the cost of building the new studio and offices, as well as startup costs. At NBC, most young employees tended to support O'Brien and joined the "I'm with Coco" Facebook groups; NBC later asked all employees to rescind their membership in any O'Brien-supporting pages. Similar action came when any effort to mention O'Brien's tenure was whitewashed from company history.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Impact
Gaspin was happy with the settlement, but nevertheless agreed with one of O'Brien's points—that his show had no time to grow: "Could it have grown? Absolutely ... We just couldn't give him the time." Zucker, in an interview with Charlie Rose, defended his strategy but noted that both shows were a mistake. Zucker, who had known O'Brien since their days at Harvard University and was very close friends with Ross, was very disappointed with how events played out, although he viewed it as necessary.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Impact
Leno, in an attempt to repair his public perception, granted an interview to Oprah Winfrey on January 25; he stripped himself of any blame for O'Brien's disappointment, noting that it was all about ratings, and also confirmed that he told a "white lie" in 2004 when he guaranteed The Tonight Show to O'Brien. In a reference to a 2007 Super Bowl commercial starring Letterman and Winfrey (the two had feuded for years prior), Letterman, Leno, and Winfrey all appeared in a spot airing during Super Bowl XLIV in February 2010.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Impact
The ad—Letterman's idea—was the first time the late-night hosts had met since their own 1992 debacle. In it, Letterman and Leno sit on opposite sides of Winfrey watching the game; Letterman deems it "the worst Super Bowl party ever" due to Leno's inclusion, and Winfrey tells him to "be nice", resulting in Leno quipping, "Oh, he's just saying that 'cause I'm here." The clip stirred a frenzy, with commentators speculating that Leno had been "green-screened" into the picture.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Impact
Letterman had initially wanted O'Brien to be in the promo as well, but O'Brien firmly rejected it, saying, "No fucking way I'm doing that. It's not a joke to me—it's real." O'Brien was sure his agreement prohibited television appearances for several months, but gathered NBC would be only too happy to allow him a one-time reprieve for the ad, as it was to improve Leno's image. O'Brien, by this point, was planning a live tour with his staff that would take him on the road, and had also created a Twitter account.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Impact
After about one hour online, O'Brien's number of Twitter followers had rocketed past the 30,000 followers of the official Jay Leno account, and he held over 300,000 followers in under 24 hours; he surpassed the one million mark in May 2010. Many speculated that O'Brien would sign a deal with Fox for a late-night program; Comedy Central and HBO had also expressed interest in O'Brien. Fox's deal moved slowly and they eventually withdrew their offer due to station resistance, the daunting financial investment, and opposition from Roger Ailes.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Impact
O'Brien eventually signed with cable network TBS in April, with his next program, Conan, set to debut in November. The move prompted industry surprise; online blog Vulture commented that, "Conan will now be featured as a lead-in for Lopez Tonight on TBS. It's not just basic cable, it's unsexy basic cable." His nationwide comedy tour, The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour, began on April 12 and ran through June 14. A documentary shot during that time, Conan O'Brien Can't Stop, as well as a May 60 Minutes interview, prompted some observers to deem him "whiny". Vanity Fair's James Wolcott said O'Brien "came off as a peevish straw of nervous energy ... a self-involved chatterbox."


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Impact
As NBC could have potentially retained intellectual property originating from O'Brien's entire seventeen-year tenure with the network, O'Brien simply changed names on the tour (turning his character, the Masturbating Bear, into the "Self-Pleasuring Panda"). The Washington Post later reported that retaining the characters was "not a key issue for O'Brien".


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Aftermath
Conan premiered in November 2010 to 4 million viewers, leading all late-night talk shows and more than tripling the audience of its direct competition, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report on Comedy Central. However, ratings quickly fell; by the following fall, The Wall Street Journal proclaimed that, "TBS's pricey Conan O'Brien experiment is flopping." In an effort to bolster ratings, TBS secured the cable syndication rights to The Big Bang Theory at a reported US$4 million per episode to serve as a lead-in to Conan three nights a week.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Aftermath
Steve Koonin of Turner Entertainment stated in 2012 that, "Conan is our Mount Rushmore. We've made him the centerpiece of TBS. If success were only about ratings, we'd just run Westerns all the time." The Hollywood Reporter credited it with forging "a digital empire, his company's own shows and a young audience TBS hopes will follow him anywhere." TBS announced in May 2017 they renewed the show through 2022. However, despite the show renewal, it was announced in November 2020 that the show would end in June 2021, with O'Brien producing a weekly variety show for HBO Max.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Aftermath
Many of the executives involved in the botched transition subsequently left NBC. Zucker was fired by Comcast Executive Vice President Steve Burke, but stressed that Comcast's insistence to install their own team was the reason. Marc Graboff opted to leave his contract early that November, as did Gaspin. While O'Brien admitted in 2012 that he occasionally still felt resentment over the events that transpired, he noted that "I had an amazing partnership with NBC and was very disappointed at the outcome, but I didn't feel entitled to Late Night or Tonight or to the TBS show.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Aftermath
If you're in this business and haven't experienced profound pain at some point, you're not doing it right. I strongly believe that." He has had no contact with Leno, noting "the odds are we will both leave this Earth without speaking to each other, which is fine. There's really nothing to say. We both know the deal. He knows; I know. I'd rather just forget." In a 2010 issue of TV Guide, the timeslot conflict ranked #1 on a list of TV's biggest "blunders".


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Aftermath
A wax likeness of O'Brien that had been commissioned by NBCUniversal from Madame Tussauds and unveiled during a December 2009 episode of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien was quietly returned to the Madame Tussauds museum on Hollywood Boulevard. The figure had originally been intended to permanently reside in the "NBCUniversal Experience" theme park attraction. A remote segment produced a few months into O'Brien's TBS show saw the host humorously reuniting with the wax statue.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Aftermath
On October 5, 2011, O'Brien returned to 30 Rockefeller Plaza for a surprise, scripted appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon to ceremonially retrieve the Triumph the Insult Comic Dog puppet from the studio after NBC had finally granted him the rights to use the character on TBS's Conan. During the two-and-a-half minute bit, O'Brien and Fallon joked about the controversy when Fallon said, "You were [host of Late Night] for sixteen years. Then what happened?" to which O'Brien laughed and said, "Don't you worry about that. You're a young guy."


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Aftermath
When interviewed by Marc Maron in 2011, O'Brien remarked, "I'm trying to avoid that thing where you get a story in your head that's very clean. I think there are too many people that come up with a very simple story where they're the hero, and they don't learn anything." During his 2012 appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman, O'Brien made it clear that he held no animosity toward NBC, pointing out that the individual executives he clashed with had departed the network shortly after he did due to a regime change.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Aftermath
Indeed, O'Brien would occasionally show clips from his NBC shows on his TBS program with NBC's permission, and the network also allowed the character of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog to appear on the TBS show as well, with Triumph's performer Robert Smigel explaining that NBC only stands to gain by allowing him to give their property exposure.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Aftermath
In an interview on CNN's Piers Morgan Live, also in 2012, O'Brien acknowledged that in retrospect the plan to engineer a transition for The Tonight Show five years in advance was "absurd," though he noted that he never anticipated Leno's ratings would fall in that interim, as the press had sometimes intimated, and he pointed out that all previous Tonight Show hosts had departed when they were on top in the ratings. He further remarked that he was happier in his current situation at TBS where he felt "liberated" and could do the material he desired without the baggage of upholding a legacy.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Aftermath
In 2013, O'Brien was the headline performer invited to give remarks at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, and The Tonight Show controversy was humorously alluded to throughout the evening. During his own speech, President Obama quipped, "I understand that when the Correspondents' Association was considering Conan for this gig, they were faced with that age-old dilemma: Do you offer it to him now, or wait for five years and then give it to Jimmy Fallon?"


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Aftermath
O'Brien himself referenced the affair with a joke that complimented President Obama on job creation: "Since [Obama] was first elected, the number of popes has doubled, and the number of Tonight Show hosts has tripled." The ceremony had also opened with a pre-recorded sketch that featured Kevin Spacey as his House of Cards character Frank Underwood, who at one point expresses sympathy toward O'Brien for "that backstabbing Leno." Later that year, O'Brien was chosen to host Carson on TCM, a series that re-aired classic interviews from The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Aftermath
In 2014, Leno was interviewed for a 60 Minutes episode that focused on the host's second and permanent departure from The Tonight Show desk. Leno expressed to Steve Kroft that he had been "blindsided" in 2004 when NBC executives asked him to relinquish The Tonight Show in five years' time, though he admitted that he had accepted the decision with no argument or inquiry.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Aftermath
In spite of this and the public remarks Leno had made at the time blessing O'Brien's succession, both Leno and his wife Mavis characterized The Tonight Show as having been taken from the incumbent host, rather than being something that he had voluntarily surrendered. When Leno explained that he was more willing to step aside the second time due to the considerable talent of Fallon and because "talented people will only wait so long before they get other opportunities," Kroft pointed out that Leno had said very similar things about O'Brien years before. "Well, maybe I did, yeah," admitted Leno before joking, "Well, we'll see what happens."


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Aftermath
During a 2015 interview with Howard Stern, O'Brien explained that he prefers to avoid talking about the "craziness," stating that people in show business shouldn't complain, that "no one cares", and that he noticed addressing the topic even in joking response to an earnest question by a guest on his show invariably resulted in admonishments from the media to "let it go." He claimed that even in hindsight he does not regret doing five more years of Late Night instead of moving to Fox, nor does he regret his incarnation of The Tonight Show.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Aftermath
Leno kept The Tonight Show number one for the rest of his run, until he handed the franchise to Fallon in February 2014. Fallon's credibility with younger viewers and presence online was why NBC instituted the change, which was announced only three years following O'Brien's departure. During the show that aired the day of the announcement, O'Brien congratulated Fallon, stating, "Jimmy is the perfect guy to do it, and he's gonna do a fantastic job."


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Aftermath
While alluding to (and joking about) the 2010 controversy many times over his last few weeks on the air, Leno did not directly acknowledge his nine-month absence from the franchise nor did he mention O'Brien when he delivered his thank-yous and goodbyes as he concluded his second tenure as host. During the February 6, 2014, episode of Conan, however, which aired the same night as Leno's final Tonight Show, O'Brien referenced Leno in his monologue by alluding to NBC's position as the American broadcaster of the 2014 Winter Olympics, saying:


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Aftermath
NBC has the Olympics. It's a big deal. NBC will finally get to show somebody who is okay with passing the torch. (pause for laughter and applause) I allowed myself one, but it was a good one.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Aftermath
Though NBC had made a considerable effort to scrub any references to O'Brien's brief tenure as The Tonight Show host both on-air and online, with one former blogger for NBC Sports noting a corporate policy banning any mention of O'Brien, it was acknowledged by the network during the buildup to the 2014 transition from Leno to Fallon. A brief shot of O'Brien walking onto his Tonight set was displayed in an on-air promo chronicling the franchise's history, and Fallon referenced the conflict on his first Tonight Show episode, when he opened the show by joking:


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Aftermath
I'm Jimmy Fallon, and I'll be your host—for now. (pause for laughter) Of course, I wouldn't be here tonight if it weren't for the previous Tonight Show hosts, so I want to say thank you to Steve Allen, Jack Paar, Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien and Jay Leno.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Aftermath
Less than a month removed from hosting Tonight, Leno appeared on The Arsenio Hall Show on February 26, 2014, as a surprise guest to deliver the news that the revived program had been renewed by CBS Television Distribution for a second season. This proved to be premature, however, as Hall's program was indeed canceled on May 30, 2014.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Aftermath
Comedian Bill Maher paid tribute to Leno when he was inducted into the TV Academy Hall Of Fame, an honor bestowed upon the host in 2014 when he stepped down from The Tonight Show a second time. A longtime friend of Leno, Maher complained that Leno was "victimized" by the press during the NBC fiasco.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Aftermath
In a 2015 interview, Leno reiterated his stance that O'Brien's own performance led to his ouster from 11:35 and that he remained mystified by the suggestion that he should have refused the time slot when it was offered back to him, saying, "Why? Because Conan and I were good friends? No . At that point...it's a business decision. I'm sure it could have been handled differently. But I think it was a matter of letting things take its course. If Conan's ratings would have been fine, it wouldn't have been an issue. It wouldn't have come up."


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Aftermath
In 2017, Leno again absolved himself, instead emphasizing that he kept The Tonight Show number one after his return. He addressed the longstanding claim that his contract was the more expensive one to break with equivocation: "I mean, if I'm that smart, how did I lose the show in the first place?"


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Aftermath
When he took over Tonight, Fallon insisted that Leno is welcome to appear on the show anytime he wishes, saying, "Whenever he wants, he's got a stage." Leno made his first appearance as a guest on November 7, 2014, although he had previously appeared in a produced House of Cards parody on August 12, 2014, in which he is revealed as the mystery man who pushes Fallon (as Frank Underwood) onto the tracks in front of a speeding subway train. Leno has subsequently appeared on Tonight several times in the years since.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Aftermath
On February 13, 2015, Robert Smigel appeared in character as Triumph the Insult Comic Dog on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to promote The Jack and Triumph Show. During the interview, he joked about the conflict to a visibly nervous Fallon: "Listen, we love NBC. NBC...we kid, you know? NBC will always be the place where Jack and I got our start. And where they fucked Conan."


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Aftermath
He played it off saying everyone landed where they should be, saying that he was happy to see Fallon hosting The Tonight Show, encouraging everyone to watch Conan, and Leno's new spot was behind Fallon with piano wire. On December 7, 2015, The Daily Show made reference to the controversy. When former host Jon Stewart made a guest appearance on the show, current host Trevor Noah jokingly remarked, "Are you here to take the show back? Oh, man, I heard about this in American TV. Are you taking the show back?". Stewart replied, quietly, "Trust me, a thousand times no".


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Aftermath
As the controversy grew distant with time, formal acknowledgement of O'Brien's lengthy career at NBC became more common by the network. In 2017, mention was made of the host in NBC's 90th Anniversary Special, and a display for him among all Tonight Show hosts appears in the ride queue of the Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon theme park attraction at Universal Studios Florida. A plaque on the O'Brien display reads:


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Aftermath
In September 1993, Conan O'Brien made his television debut on Late Night with Conan O'Brien after working as a writer on such television comedy institutions as Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons. O'Brien's brand of irreverent humor proved to be a hit with the late night audience, including memorable sketches like "If They Mated," "In the Year 2000," and "Triumph the Insult Comic Dog." In September 2004, on the 50th anniversary of The Tonight Show, NBC announced that O'Brien would take over hosting duties from Jay Leno in 2009.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Aftermath
While his time as host proved to be short-lived, O'Brien went on to launch a new late night talk show, Conan, on TBS in November 2010. Conan O'Brien remains a true comedy innovator and, at almost 25 years on the air, has enjoyed one of the longest runs of any late night television host.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Aftermath
In conjunction with his 25th anniversary as a late-night host, it was announced that O'Brien, TBS and NBC had come to an arrangement that would allow the entirety of O'Brien's late night archive (with the exception of musical performances, which posed insurmountable licensing issues), totaling over four thousand episodes, to become available in January 2019 via a state-of-the-art website dubbed "Conan 25". The launch marks the first time O'Brien's NBC programs were made legally available since The Tonight Show conflict.


2010 Tonight Show conflict, Aftermath
On June 15, 2021, in one of the final episodes of Conan, guest Martin Short alluded to the controversy by asking O'Brien if his to-be-announced guest for the final week was going to be Leno. After a surprised reaction from the audience and laughter from O'Brien and Richter, O'Brien jokingly responds that they asked Leno, but he wouldn't pick up the phone.


2010 Top League Challenge Series
The 2010 Top League Challenge Series was the 2010 edition of the Top League Challenge Series, a second-tier rugby union competition in Japan, in which teams from regionalised leagues competed for promotion to the Top League for the 2010–11 season. The competition was contested from 11 to 25 January 2010.


2010 Top League Challenge Series
NTT Communications Shining Arcs and Toyota Industries Shuttles won promotion to the 2010–11 Top League, while Mazda Blue Zoomers and Yokogawa Musashino Atlastars progressed to the promotion play-offs.


2010 Top League Challenge Series, Competition rules and information
The top two teams from the regional Top East League, Top West League and Top Kyūshū League qualified to the Top League Challenge Series. The regional league winners participated in Challenge 1, while the runners-up participated in Challenge 2.


2010 Top League Challenge Series, Competition rules and information
The top two teams in Challenge 1 won automatic promotion to the 2010–11 Top League, while the third-placed team in Challenge 1 and the Challenge 2 winner qualified to the promotion play-offs.


2010 Top League Challenge Series, Qualification
The teams qualified to the Challenge 1 and Challenge 2 series through the 2009 regional leagues.


2010 Top League Challenge Series, Qualification, Top West League
The final standings for the 2009 Top West League were:


2010 Top League Challenge Series, Qualification, Top East League
The final standings for the 2009 Top East League were:


2010 Top League Challenge Series, Qualification, Top Kyūshū League
The final standings for the 2009 Top Kyūshū League were: