Conan O'Brien had nothing but good wishes for Jimmy Fallon after NBC named the latter to replace Jay Leno as host of The Tonight Show next year.
Despite being forced out of his dream job two years ago when Leno decided to reclaim his late-night time slot, the flame-haired funnyman briefly addressed the peacock's succession plans a half-hour into Wednesday night's episode of his namesake TBS show.
"I want to congratulate Jimmy. That is a really fun gig," said a classy Conan to chuckles from the audience. "You laugh, it's a fun gig. And you know what? Jimmy is the perfect guy to do it. He's gonna do a fantastic job. So congratulations, Jimmy."
O'Brien pointedly did not mention Jay, who stirred controversy after taking The Tonight Show back from him in 2010 when his own primetime program, The Jay Leno Show, failed miserably in the ratings.
Team CoCo, of course, rebounded on cable and is going strong as evidenced by TBS announcing on Monday that it renewed Conan through November 2015.
As for Leno's other rival, David Letterman—whom Leno beat out for The Tonight Show gig back in the early '90s, an acrimonious affair that has since come to be referred to as the "Late-Night Wars"—the gap-toothed comic expressed surprise about the handover.
"Something's wrong here," said Letterman on The Late Show last night about Jay's retirement.
Dave, whose contract also ends in 2014, then praised the late-night host for "going out on top" and congratulated him for a "job well done" before dedicating the evening's Top 10 list to Leno.