text: Apart from the show's brief run as a news show in 1957, its shortest-serving host was Conan O'Brien, who went on to continue hosting a late-night program following his controversial departure. O'Brien hosted 146 episodes over the course of fewer than eight months before Leno was brought back as host, where he served for almost four additional years. Current host Fallon debuted on February 17, 2014. Fallon had previously hosted Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and before Late Night he was a popular member of the cast of Saturday Night Live, co-hosting the "Weekend Update" segment with Tina Fey as well as performing sketches.
  Hosting history
  From 1950 to 1951 NBC aired Broadway Open House, a nightly variety show hosted primarily by comic Jerry Lester. It was unsuccessful because hosting five nights a week burned through all of Lester's material faster than he could create it, so he was given rotating hosting duties for a weekly prime time variety show in 1951. The network scaled back late-night programming to shorter weekly shows. A spin-off, Dagmar's Canteen, aired the following season on Saturday nights; at some other point in the week, Mary Kay's Nightcap (which mostly consisted of previews of the next day's programming) also aired that season.