conan obrien sued an american latenight talk show
because of a lack of competition carson was free to take time off by 1980 he was only hosting three new shows a week and have guest hosts on the show on a weekly basis and for weeks at a time when carson was on vacation including joey bishop a former competitor of his joan rivers david letterman bob newhart don rickles david brenner and jerry lewis
 he ultimately signed through 2005 indicating that it was symbolic of surpassing lettermans run with 12 years of hosting