It was his time to leave The Tonight Show. Leno decided he wanted to leave the show about five years ago back in 2004 as soon as Conan O'Brien's contract with NBC was about to expire. Conan O'Brien told NBC that he was going to talk to other television stations to get on the air at 11:30 PM EST/10:30 Central and he would refuse to stay at the very late show at 12:30PM beyond 11 years.

Since NBC didn't want to lose Conan O'Brien so that he would be in competition with Jay Leno, NBC made him a promise that he would come on board The Tonight Show in 2009 in order to keep him with NBC. Jay Leno was fine with this, and said he would leave the show in 2009 before he turned 60.

Jay Leno is okay to retire at this age, but Leno is moving on to bigger and better things, such as a possible gig at stand up comedy or even his own prime time show.

So Jimmy Fallon will be replacing Conan O'Brien for the Late Night Show.
Source(s):
http://www.shakefire.com/boards/archive/index.php/t-1009.html


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