Late Night with Conan O'Brien is an American late-night talk show hosted by Conan O'Brien that aired 2,725 episodesLate Night With Conan O'Brien; February 20, 2009 on NBC from 1993 to 2009. The show featured varied comedic material, celebrity interviews, and musical and stand-up comedy performances. Late Night aired weeknights at 12:37 a.m. Eastern/11:37 p.m. Central and 12:37 a.m. Pacific in the United States. From 1993 until 2000, Andy Richter served as O'Brien's sidekick; following his departure, O'Brien was the show's sole featured performer. The show's house musical act was The Max Weinberg 7, led by E Street Band drummer Max Weinberg.

The second incarnation of NBC's Late Night franchise, O'Brien's debuted in 1993 after David Letterman, who hosted the first incarnation of Late Night, moved to CBS to host the Late Show opposite The Tonight Show. In 2004, as part of a deal to secure a new contract, NBC announced that O'Brien would leave Late Night in 2009 to succeed Jay Leno as the host of the Tonight Show. Jimmy Fallon began hosting his version of Late Night on March 2, 2009.Lisa de Moraes - For Jay Leno, Parting Is Such Sour Sorrow - washingtonpost.com

History

Upon Johnny Carson's retirement from The Tonight Show in 1992, executives at NBC announced that Carson's frequent guest-host Jay Leno would be Carson's replacement, and not David Letterman. NBC later said that Letterman's high ratings for Late Night were the reason they kept him where he was. Letterman was bitterly disappointed and angry at not having been given The Tonight Show job and, at Carson's advice, he left NBC after eleven years on Late Night. CBS signed Letterman to host his own show opposite The Tonight Show. He moved his show over to CBS virtually unchanged, taking most of the staff, skits, and comedy formats with him. However, NBC owned the rights to the Late Night name, forcing Letterman to re-christen his show Late Show with David Letterman.