Conan's Debut, As Strong As His Hair

After a five-minute pre-produced piece showing Conan O'Brien running from New York to Los Angeles, he took the new "Tonight Show" stage.

He pulled those imaginary strings to hike up his pants and then told his first joke.

O'Brien said the timing of his move was perfect: NBC is a low-rated network, California is going bankrupt and "The Tonight Show" is sponsored by General Motors.

Some bits worked more than others.

And, O'Brien's first guest, Will Ferrell, joked NBC execs are already nervous.

O'Brien has kept the "Tonight Show" at number one for the first night at least.

Early figures show more people watched O'Brien's first show than watched David Letterman and "Nightline" combined.

His overnight rating was nearly double what Jay Leno usually got.


What the El!?! Editorial:

I watched, it wasn't bad. I actually am not a big Conan fan (I'm usually asleep by then!) but I have attended a taping of the show, it's pretty fun.

I hope he does well, it'll be interesting to see if he returns to the old Conan now that we're past the first episode.

(Associated Press)
 

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