LOS ANGELES — Conan O’Brien said on his final “Tonight” show that walking away is the hardest thing he has ever had to do.
He ended his tenure on the storied late-night show Friday, seven months after he started. He is set to be replaced by the man he initially took over for — Jay Leno.
Before ending his show, O’Brien thanked his fans, the viewers and even NBC. He worked at the network for two decades before leaving in lieu of accepting a demotion. Despite his sense of loss, O’Brien said the end should be a happy moment.
“Every comedian dreams of hosting the ‘Tonight’ show, and, for seven months, I got to. I did it my way, with people I love, and I do not regret a second,” he said, adding, “If our next gig is doing a show in a 7-Eleven parking lot, we’ll find a way to make it fun.”
Some of O’Brien’s outspoken fans — who have relished the comic’s attacks on his employer in recent days — lined up in heavy rain early Friday at the studio to try to score tickets to the final broadcast.
Many young fans, who were small children when O’Brien burst to fame as host of NBC’s “Late Night” in 1993, acted out favorite bits from the show, including the comic’s signature “string dance.”
A last-minute splurge on travel tickets brought 27-year-old Chris Knudsen all the way from Austin, Texas, on Thursday night. He then took a 2 1/2-hour bus trip with a friend from her home in La Mirada to Universal City.
“It was a very spontaneous trip,” Knudsen said. “But it’s Conan. I had to do it. I’ve been watching him since his first season on ‘Late Night.’ It was a family tradition — starting with Letterman — to stay up late to watch the show. When Conan took over, he stuck with me and I stuck with him.”
The chain of events that led to O’Brien’s departure began Jan. 7, with reports that suggested NBC was considering ending Leno’s low-rated 9 p.m. MST talk show and returning him to late night.
O’Brien confirmed on his Thursday show that he had reached an agreement to exit the network. He will reportedly receive nearly $33 million to walk away, with another $12 million going to staff members who relocated from New York to Los Angeles when O’Brien took over “Tonight” in June.
O’Brien was the fifth host of “Tonight,” which premiered in 1954, after Steve Allen, Jack Paar, Johnny Carson and Leno.
