love it and we ll give you an award for it. carson: and so it has come to this. fallon: i thought that johnny carson came with the tv set. leno: what the hell were you thinking? ray: dave was the new johnny, for me. letterman: i m not exactly a computer. slow down. meyers: it felt. edgy before i was probably old enough to appreciate what edgy was. man: you better be as good as letterman. o brien: i ll give it a shot. o brien: my heart dropped through my butt. it exited my butt. stewart: holy [beep] [beep]. noah: this is madness. absolute madness. kimmel: it makes every hair on my body stand up. kimmel: we re on! kimmel: but nobody s a late night host until they are one. clinton: tomorrow we will drown out the negative voices that have held us back for too long. reporter: after a night of fires, looting, and violence, five people are dead. katie: the end of an era. after ruling late night television for 30 years, johnny carson steps down tonight. [distant applause]
But jay is still getting his ass handed to him. i was scared to death. dave beat our brains out for two years. and there were certainly questions on the part of my colleagues at nbc, what are we going to do about jay leno? i was really worried that the show was not going to make it. let me ask you a question. when prisoners watch shows like cops, do you think they root for the criminal? what do you think? come on, get over the fence! oh, man, oh, oh! on the worst day of the tonight show and the worst, horrible conditions, you re still writing jokes and you re laughing. and i said, all right, let s see what we have to do to bring this thing out of the hole. jay has this ability to plow forward. like nobody i ve ever seen. i have to hand it to jay leno that he s the one who said, we re going to win this thing and i m going to work harder.
Wonderful identity for yourselves, and i really, really appreciate that. i think you did a nice job. our big brother dave came in and stuck up for us. that was the turning point. the audiences got better. finally we got a longer renewal than 13 weeks. then somebody who worked the network went to visit his kid in college and realized that everybody that age was talking about that show. i m hearing from college kids, like, this is their guy. conan o brien. they love him. and slowly, very, very slowly, conan started to find it. but jay is still getting his ass handed to him. i was scared to death. dave beat our brains out for two years. and there was certainly questions on the part of my colleagues at nbc, what are we going to do about jay leno?
Anything with jay. i think you ve really done a great job to carve out a wonderful identity for yourself, and i really, really appreciate that i think you did a nice job. well, thank you. our big brother dave came in and stuck up for us. that was the oh, turning point. the audience got better. finally got a longer renewal of than 13 weeks. and then somebody who works at the network went to visit his kid in college and realized that everybody that age was talking about that show. i am hearing from college kids like this is their guy, conan o brien. they love him. and slowly, very, very slowly conan started to find it. but jay is still getting his ass handed to him. i was scared to death. dave beat our brains out for two years.