List of Late Night with Conan O'Brien sketches
The sketch was invented prior to the actual year 2000, but the show's writers decided to keep the named year the same even after the passing of the titular year, in a sort of ironic twist. However, when the sketch was revived on "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien", Richter heaped ridicule upon O'Brien for failing to update the name of the skit nine years after the year 2000 had passed. The sketch is renamed "In the Year 3000", with the black robe (referred to as a 'ratty smock' by Richter) being replaced with a more futuristic-looking outfit consisting of a large metallic collar with a series of blinking lights, which Conan said were very expensive to make and Andy said smelled bad. Appearing on "Tonight" June 3, 2009, it was the first "Late Night" sketch to be carried over to Conan's "Tonight Show". The open to the sketch included narration by William Shatner and, on one occasion, George Takei.
The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien
On January 10, NBC confirmed they would move Jay Leno out of primetime on February 12, and intended to move him to late-night as soon as possible. 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. If O'Brien did choose to leave, Leno would likely regain the "Tonight Show" title as well as the full 11:35 pm to 12:35 am time slot. Another possibility was that NBC could pay O'Brien to refrain from working for another network, remain off-air, then have him resume as host once Leno retires. The day after the change was announced, "The New York Times" spoke with an anonymous FOX executive, who said that the company felt O'Brien "would be a great fit for Fox." ABC had stated they felt no need to add O'Brien to their late night schedule, which already contained "Nightline" and "Jimmy Kimmel Live!".