Conan O'Brien's final Tonight Show was broadcast on January 22, 2010, with Jay Leno officially resuming his role as host on March 1, 2010, immediately following the conclusion of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

For the first six shows, the credits ran in the right half of a split screen,[4][5] a former NBC standard that Late Night continued to use long after the network abandoned it.

[6][7] New sketches included O'Brien posing for the paparazzi, known as "Conan's Tabloid Moment", and "Twitter Tracker", where an excited announcer reads mundane "tweets" by celebrities such as Ashton Kutcher, Miley Cyrus, and Dennis Haysbert.

Late Night character Triumph the Insult Comic Dog appeared on Tonight for the first time on June 19, 2009, serving as correspondent for the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Tennessee.

[8] O'Brien originally retired the Masturbating Bear at the end of his Late Night run due to concerns about its inappropriateness in the 11:30 time slot.

[12] Unlike Leno's Tonight Show, the studio audience was several feet removed from the stage, in a similar fashion to Carson's original set.

This was accompanied by reports that Jay Leno had told Jeff Zucker, the President of NBC Entertainment, News & Cable Group, of his plans to retire that same year.

In the cold open, O'Brien was shown preparing to host his first episode of The Tonight Show, going over a list of things that needed to be done, but realizing he was still in New York and had forgotten to move to Los Angeles.

On September 25, 2009, O'Brien suffered from a mild concussion after he slipped and hit his head while running a race, as part of a comedy sketch, with guest Teri Hatcher.

A rerun was aired that night, but O'Brien returned to work the following Monday and poked fun at the incident, before showing a clip of the occurrence in its entirety.

[20][21] Highly promoted prior to its premiere on the late night scene, the debut episode of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien generated 9.2 million viewers overall and a 3.8 rating in adults 18-49.

[32] Although there were suggestions that O'Brien's greatest strength, the "young men" demographic, could be more easily reached "on Web sites and cable channels like Comedy Central and Spike", advertisers and network executives alike pointed out that the first real test would come in September 2009.

[35] On January 12, 2010, in response to the controversy of the late-night schedule change, O'Brien's ratings grew to 1.7 rating/7 share among adults 18–49, up 40 percent from the previous day.

[41][42] O'Brien's contract stipulated that NBC could move the show back to 12:05 am without penalty (a clause put in primarily to accommodate sports preemptions), leaving him with no apparent recourse other than resignation.

[41] TMZ reported that O'Brien was given no advance notice of the change, and that NBC offered two choices: the hour-long 12:05 am time slot, or the option to leave the network.

"[45] ABC had stated they felt no need to add O'Brien to their late night schedule, which already contained Nightline and Jimmy Kimmel Live!.

Also, if I accept this move I will be knocking the Late Night show, which I inherited from David Letterman and passed on to Jimmy Fallon, out of its long-held time slot.

[57] Dozens of celebrities expressed support for O'Brien, including Roger Ebert,[58] Tom Hanks,[59] Rosie O'Donnell,[60][61] Jim Gaffigan,[62] Paul F. Tompkins,[63] Doug Benson,[64] Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson,[65] Alyssa Milano,[66] Chris Parnell,[67] Jimmy Kimmel,[68] Jeff Garlin[citation needed], and Ricky Gervais.

[71] After two weeks of negotiations, on January 21, 2010, it was officially announced that Conan O'Brien had signed a $45 million deal to leave NBC altogether, ending a partnership that lasted 22 years.

"[79] Ed Helms appeared on January 20, performing "Stu's Song" from The Hangover with altered lyrics that remarked upon O'Brien's current troubles.

The January 20 episode included a comedic bit in which O'Brien unveiled a Bugatti Veyron dressed as a mouse, while the song "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by The Rolling Stones played in the background.

O'Brien claimed that the car and music licensing fees ("not to mention the rights to re-air this clip on the Internet") would cost NBC $1.5 million.

[82] The segment was subsequently cut from Internet versions of the episode that were uploaded to Hulu and NBC.com, presumably so the network could avoid paying the licensing fees required for the Rolling Stones song.

[83] The "expensive" comedy bit continued on January 21, featuring 2009 Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird wearing a mink Snuggie watching restricted Super Bowl footage, which O'Brien claimed cost NBC $4.8 million.

The final episode upped the ante further with a purported $65 million sketch, featuring a credit card-purchased fossil skeleton of a ground sloth from the Smithsonian Institution spraying Beluga caviar through a hose onto an original Picasso painting.

Before introducing the final segment, a performance of "Free Bird", O'Brien gave a statement to the viewers and audience, which included a personal thank you to NBC (the first time he expressed gratitude to the network since the controversy began) and his devoted fanbase: Ladies and gentlemen, before we bring this rodeo to a close, I think a couple things should be said.

Neil Young performed an acoustic version of his song "Long May You Run", and the show ended with Will Ferrell dressed as Ronnie Van Zant playing the cowbell in a nod to his famous role in the More cowbell sketch, Ferrell's pregnant wife Viveca Paulin, Billy Gibbons, Ben Harper, Beck, O'Brien himself, and Max Weinberg and The Tonight Show Band performing "Free Bird".

[91] Time magazine criticized the network for pulling the videos, noting that Hulu currently streams many less popular NBC series, such as Knight Rider, Kings, Crusoe, and Surface.

Nikki Finke, a blogger for the Deadline Hollywood website, cited this as more evidence of NBC attempting to erase any remnants of the O'Brien era.

One O'Brien reference that NBC did not filter out was in the April 1, 2010 episode of The Marriage Ref, with Late Night host Jimmy Fallon on the panel.