Fans flock to O’Brien’s last ‘Tonight’ show

LOS ANGELES — After two weeks of frantic backroom maneuvers and withering on-air broadsides, NBC’s siege with Conan O’Brien came to a close Friday evening. The comic signed off after less than
eight months as host of “Tonight Show,” leaving a once-venerable
late-night franchise hobbled by corporate missteps and changing
audience dynamics.

Neither NBC nor O’Brien’s producers would permit reporters to attend the taping of the final show, which began around 5 p.m. Pacific time at a Universal City studio. The network also declined to make a live feed of the program available for viewing.

Some of O’Brien’s outspoken fans — who have relished
the comic’s attacks on his employer in recent days — lined up in heavy
rain early Friday morning at the studio to try to score tickets to the
final broadcast. Many young fans, who were still small children when
O’Brien burst to fame as host of NBC’s “Late Night” in 1993, acted out favorite bits from the show, including the comic’s signature “string dance.”

A last-minute splurge on travel tickets brought 27-year-old Chris Knudsen all the way from Austin, Texas, Thursday night. He then took a two-and-a-half bus trip with a friend from her home in La Mirada to Universal City.

“It was a very spontaneous trip,” Knudsen admitted.
“But it’s Conan. I had to do it. I’ve been watching him since his first
season on ‘Late Night.’ It was a family tradition — starting with
Letterman — to stay up late to watch the show. When Conan took over, he
stuck with me and I stuck with him.”

Stephanie Martinez, a 21-year-old college student from Downey near Los Angeles,
joined many of her peers in favorably comparing her comedy hero with
Leno, who was O’Brien’s predecessor on “Tonight” and will be his
successor as well.

Leno is “a lower level of comedy,” Martinez, who
said she attended Thursday’s O’Brien taping, said. “Conan connects with
his audience. He goes out of his way to let us know we’re on the same
level. I connected with him. He’s so much like me. … I would totally
do the string dance.”

The chain of events that led to O’Brien’s departure began on Jan. 7, with reports that suggested NBC was considering ending Leno’s low-rated 10 p.m.
talk show — which had begun in September to much fanfare — and
returning him to late night. The move came following pressure from
local stations, who also worried that O’Brien’s “Tonight” was
struggling in the ratings opposite CBS’ “Late Show With David Letterman.”

The situation escalated the following week when
O’Brien published a statement saying that he would not accept the
network’s proposal that his program begin at 12:05 a.m., after Leno’s. The standoff transfixed the entertainment industry as representatives of both sides worked to hammer out a deal.

O’Brien confirmed on his Thursday show that he had reached an agreement to exit the network. He will reportedly receive nearly $33 million to walk away, with another $12 million going to staff members who relocated from New York to Los Angeles when O’Brien took over “Tonight” last June.

O’Brien was the fifth host of “Tonight,” which premiered in 1954, after Steve Allen, Jack Paar, Johnny Carson and Leno. He had by far the shortest tenure; Carson, who hosted for 30 years, had the longest.

Under the terms of the deal, O’Brien will not be able to return to television or do interviews until Sept. 1. Leno will return as “Tonight” host on March 1, after NBC finishes telecasting the Winter Olympics.

O’Brien has spent much of his recent telecasts taking potshots at his employer. During one monologue, he noted that NBC had reportedly threatened to keep him off the air for years after he left “Tonight.”

“If NBC doesn’t want people to see me,” he joked, “just leave me on NBC.”

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