CoCo's Last Dance: "Hardest Thing I Have Ever Had to Do"
Conan O'Brien just closed out his final episode as host of The Tonight Show, and what a show it was: hilarious shenanigans, Steve Carell, Tom Hanks, Neil Young, a tearful statement of gratitude, and Will Ferrell with a mothereffing cowbell.
As per usual, all of the noteworthy clips from tonight's broadcasts are grouped below by show and labeled accordingly.
I. THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH CONAN O'BRIEN
12:05 AM ET: O'Brien's first segment was jam-packed: a hilariously reflective monologue (he'd like Tilda Swinton to play him in the sequel to The Late Shift); a scrolling video of proposed uses for his studio, post-Tonight Show; another "Let's see how much of NBC's money we can spend" bit (and an admission that it's all fake); a video montage of some classic moments from the last seven months; and a rousing ovation from the studio audience.
After the first commercial break, O'Brien announced that an NBC employee was coming out to give him an exit interview. Oh, yeah—it was Steve Carell.
12:30 AM ET: Here's the first part of O'Brien's touching interview with Tom Hanks, in which he revealed that Hanks is the person who nicknamed him "CoCo." (Please forgive my lack of commentary. I'm trying to get the videos up as fast as possible and will fill in holes with the commentary later.)
12:35 AM ET: Here's the second part of the Hanks interview.
3:05 AM ET: Here's Neil Young's tribute performance to O'Brien, singing Long May You Run. (Not putting this at the bottom—even though it's being added later—because I want everything to run chronologically for The Tonight Show, as I've included the entire broadcast.)
12:45 AM ET: Get the tissues out. Here's O'Brien's tearful end-of-show statement, in which he confirmed that he was allowed to say whatever he wanted about NBC for the night, before thanking the network for employing him for 20 years. If that's not classy, I don't know what is.
1:05 AM ET: All good things must come to an end. This is how The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien came to an end.
II. THE LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN
8:30 PM ET: In this advance clip from tonight's episode, Letterman introduces us to a preview of HBO's sequel to The Late Shift.
1:55 AM ET: Here are all the relevant moments from Letterman's monologue, in which he—SHOCKER!—continued bashing NBC and Leno. (It should be noted that tonight's show taped on Monday, which is probably why Letterman said he "wasn't sure" that "tonight" was O'Brien's final episode).
III. LATE NIGHT WITH JIMMY FALLON
1:10 AM ET: Fallon opened his show tonight with a cute tribute to O'Brien, in which he and members of The Roots poured out a 40oz. on the floor of Studio 6A at 30 Rock—home of Late Night with Conan O'Brien for 16 years.
IV. JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE!
2:40 AM ET: Tonight, Kimmel's show contained a few great NBC/Leno-hating nuggets, including a suggestion that Leno tried to steal the hosting duties of the Haiti telethon away from George Clooney. Also: vintage footage from Leno's days as an actor, via a clip where he gets shot up pretty badly.
V. THE LATE LATE SHOW WITH CRAIG FERGUSON
3:15 AM ET: Ferguson made only a single mention of NBC's late night controversy tonight, but at least it was a good one.
[The Late Show with David Letterman]
[The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien]
[Late Night with Jimmy Fallon]
