All the way back in 1991 (yeah, I’m old) late-night television staple Johnny Carson announced he would be retiring from The Tonight Show on NBC. With Carson riding off into the sunset, it was finally time for David Letterman, who had been innovating the format in the time slot behind Carson for a decade, to get his big shot.
Instead, Jay Leno came out of the ether to become the new host of the Tonight Show, leaving Letterman and his fans wondering just what in the heck had just happened. NBC essentially forced Letterman to leave the network, after which he finally got back onto our TV screens with the Late Show on CBS.