something that has been there for centuries, for thousands of years, suddenly is... no longer there. - he's a tremendous part of history, and that's lovely to major mark on an era like that. - johnny had told no one what he planned to do, and we weren't prepared. and that set off a game of musical chairs for who would get the throne. and there only was one late-night throne. - hi, you guys. - jay leno had been pretty much carson's regular substitute host when he went on vacation. - you know what's amazing? now, this is true. only six months ago, people were talking about donald trump as a presidential candidate. right? that's true. now, since then, he's had an affair, he's left his wife, he's run up a debt of several million dollars. so i guess he's gonna be running as a democrat, huh? - jay leno wanted to essentially just continue doing a johnny carson-type show. and david letterman was the show immediately following carson.