Also keeping the ginger-haired giant in the news was his appearance at the Emmys on Sunday –  which were broadcast by his estranged network, NBC. Jimmy Fallon got at least one solid joke in about Conan’s truncated “Tonight Show” reign, and although much was made of O’Brien’s nomination for his seven-month stint, the juggernaut that is the “Daily Show” bested him in the end. The Los Angeles Times says Jon Stewart should just give the Emmy back, even if some of O’Brien’s fans don’t care about the loss.

Competition is a factor. Johnny Carson in his prime never had to worry about a Jon Stewart or George Lopez. Or video games and the Internet. Or, for that matter, his own network. At 11:35 p.m., more people now watch programs saved on their digital video recorders than either Leno and Letterman, the Nielsen Co. said.

Back at NBC, Leno averaged 4 million viewers a night during April, May and June. That’s a full 1 million viewers lost to NBC compared to the same three months in 2009. Letterman wasn’t necessarily the beneficiary, since his audience of 3.3 million people was off 7 percent from 2009.

An hour later, NBC’s Jimmy Fallon and CBS’ Craig Ferguson are both down, with Fallon’s nightly audience of 2 million last year slipping to 1.64 million. Comedy Central’s Stewart and Stephen Colbert are essentially drawing the same numbers as last year.

TBS may be excited about O’Brien bringing his fans over this fall, but they may want to pause at Lopez’s numbers. Lopez, who has the time slot O’Brien will take over, saw his numbers dip by 20 percent to 820,000 a night.

Bright spots are ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel, who was aggressively promoted by his network this spring, and E! Entertainment’s Chelsea Handler. ABC’s “Nightline” is also up slightly in viewers and consistently beats Letterman.

NBC executives would not speak publicly about the late-night ratings, while privately taking a glass half-full approach to Leno. They note that he’s back to surpassing Letterman after O’Brien had fallen behind his CBS rival, and that he’s done so despite a beating from critics who believed he should not have taken his time slot back from O’Brien.

“It might make them feel great, but it doesn’t mean anything,” said Bill Gorman, who runs the TV By the Numbers website. He argues that Leno’s smaller audience means more than his competitive position.

NBC also says 2009 isn’t a fair comparison because second-quarter ratings were inflated due to Leno’s exit from the time slot and O’Brien’s start then. Leno averaged nearly 4.9 million viewers for the second quarter in 2008.

Behind the raw numbers for the talk shows in that period is the way DVRs continue to revolutionize viewing habits. During the Leno and Letterman time slots, an estimated 5.4 million people were watching something they had recorded earlier — often from prime-time that night. That’s up 22 percent from 2009, Nielsen said.

Talk shows tend not to be saved for later viewing as much as dramas or comedies.

Television networks have also — in some cases, reluctantly — embraced the Internet and made monologues and other highlights from the talk shows easily available to see online the next morning. Their theory is this increases the visibility of their late-night stars. It’s still early, but there’s evidence that people are growing comfortable in not watching the late-night shows since they know they can easily catch up the next day.

“When Jimmy Kimmel went on as Jay Leno, I watched that online,” Adgate said. “I don’t stay up and watch them.”

Leno and Letterman are increasingly being identified as an older generation’s talk show hosts. Nielsen said the median age of a Letterman viewer was 55. Leno’s audience used to be younger, but is now 56.

Kimmel’s audience went up by 10 percent to 1.7 million people for the period ending with June. ABC pushed Kimmel forward, believing he could take advantage of the NBC turmoil, and worked on approaches that could serve as a template for others. He does increasingly elaborate comic bits that are designed as much for Internet penetration as for his show. ABC also scheduled prime-time specials around events like the NBA Finals.

“We gave this show a lot of opportunity for additional exposure,” said Danielle Greene, vice president of late night for the ABC Entertainment Group.

Stronger ratings for “Nightline” may have helped Kimmel, too.

Perhaps most alarming for network executives is that the ratings sag came after a stretch of time last winter when shifting late-night hosts were front-page news, a riveting personal drama that the hosts were eager to play out in front of the camera. O’Brien’s aggrieved final shows on NBC drew big ratings and won his staff an Emmy nomination for writing.

Yet there have been no lasting benefits.

The ratings trouble “has happened pretty quickly,” Adgate said. “We’re kind of at a crossroads to see which direction it’s going to go.”

Leno’s 17-year stint as “Tonight Show” host garnered the show just one Emmy for outstanding comedy variety show — and that was 15 years ago. So for O’Brien (who also has a single win) to strut into his new digs as the Emmy award winner that NBC tossed aside would be roughly the equivalent of having your ex see you on the arm of a supermodel the same day your former boss learns you just got the corner office somewhere else. In other words, sweeeeet.

Though the likelihood of a win is slim, it’ll nonetheless be interesting to see how the Emmys dole out their accolades for comedy and variety after months of what can only be described as drama. The nominees will be announced July 8. And in a pleasingly poetic turn, the August 29 broadcast will be hosted by Jimmy Fallon, Conan’s NBC late-night successor.

O’Brien, who is still bound by what must be the mother of all non-disparagement clauses, was circumspect in the Sunday segment with Steve Kroft (he’d also been restrained from giving any television interviews until May 1). Gone was the Conan of winter, a man who seemed gloriously ablaze with rage toward his network. Instead he compared his split with NBC to the end of a marriage. He talked about grieving his relationship — “toxic,” he called it, classic breakup speak — who pulled dude-in-pain moves like tweeting through his tears and the classic, growing a beard.

“So I lost ‘The Tonight Show,’” he cracked to Kroft. “I’ll show them. I‘ll stop shaving!”

Throughout the segment, Kroft lobbed questions to a clearly well-prepared, deeply cautious O’Brien. Had Jeff Zucker called him since he’d left? Had Leno? Nooooo.

“I do not think I will be hearing from him,” he said. And when asked if he believed Leno had acted “honorably,” he replied like a lover trying to stay classy. “What I know is what happened, which is he went and took that show back.” He added, “Had I surrendered ‘The Tonight Show,’ I would not have come back six months later. But that’s me.” Subtext: Because I’m not a jerk.

Then, in the interview’s most revealing moment, he responded to Kroft’s question about whether Leno had also been “screwed” by NBC with laughter, a dramatic, amused eye roll, and a polite, “It’s harder for me to get inside his head and argue his side. I’m happy with my decision. I sleep well at night. I hope he’s happy with his decision.”

Very “(500) Days of Summer.” 

In fact, the closest O’Brien got to flashing any temper was when he admitted, “I don’t know how thought out this whole thing was. But if they wanted me to leave … they got their wish.” And when asked about NBC’s assertion that the show was losing money, he shook his head and replied, “For anyone to say the results were in after six months doesn’t ring true to me … I don’t see how that’s possible. Everybody knows they did what they had to do, and the only thing I take exception to is people saying, ‘Conan was losing money.’”

Like any man coming out of the fog of heartbreak, O’Brien hasn’t exactly returned as the lighthearted cut-up we knew during all those years of his previous relationship. In September, he’ll reemerge at TBS (which he pointedly referred to as “young”), and chances are, in much the manner of everyone who’s been through a breakup, he’ll be bringing his baggage with him. Maybe by then he won’t have to reassure his fans that “I’m fine. I don’t regret anything,” and can go back to being “comedically absurd and ridiculous.” But this time, the man who’s still doing the heartbreak anthem “I Will Survive” every night on his tour will be sporting a little more bittersweet perspective — and a lot more facial hair. And if Letterman’s anything to go on, years and years of sly digs at NBC’s expense.

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The gangly redhead worked the room hard, joking, dancing and even making costume changes that, at one point, included a pink leather outfit.

“This is the first time anyone has paid to see me. They’ve paid me to go away,” O’Brien told the audience of more than 2,500, an obvious reference to the former “Tonight” host’s $32 million exit deal with NBC.

Warning that “lawyers are watching,” O’Brien told the crowd that he was barred from performing on TV, radio or online for the near future and that ownership of some of his bits was in question. That didn’t stop him from including a Triumph routine or bringing out the Masturbating Bear, who with a small costume adjustment became the Self-Pleasuring Panda.

O’Brien acknowledged that a new TV gig awaits him later this year: TBS announced Monday that he will host a four-day-a-week show at 11 p.m. Eastern time, perhaps starting in November.

“You may have heard I got a new job: new assistant manager at Eugene’s Banana Republic,” he wisecracked, later acknowledging the TBS job in a parody version of “On the Road Again.”

The tour, once viewed as a way to generate interest in O’Brien for a late-night deal, now can serve to woo viewers to his new show and new network.

O’Brien tossed barbs NBC’s way, showing short films in which he played a bald man who introduced himself as a “generic network executive,” boasted about heading one of the top 17 networks and introduced a new series called “I’m a Celebrity and I Eat Bark.”

Jeff Zucker, NBC Universal’s chief executive, is clean-pated, and NBC’s lineup includes “I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here!”

O’Brien’s sidekick, Andy Richter, is along for the tour, with Reggie Watts the opening act. Among O’Brien’s debut show guests were the band Spoon and, from the NBC sitcom “30 Rock,” cast member Jack McBrayer, who plays Kenneth the page. Other celebrities are expected to drop in throughout the tour, which heads to Vancouver, Canada, on Wednesday.

Although he fretted at the end that the evening was mostly about him, O’Brien turned his career crisis into crowd-pleasing jokes. He recounted the “eight stages of grief” after losing a talk show, which included “Blame myself,” “Blame everyone else ’round me” and “36 hours of Red Bull and Halo.”

He didn’t spend much time on the self-blame phase, O’Brien said, “because what the hell did I do?”

The evening contained a sprinkling of four-letter words and raciness, but otherwise the show didn’t venture much across the current broadcast TV line.

Audience members, who gave O’Brien a standing ovation at the beginning and end and laughs throughout, said he lived up to expectations — even if they weren’t quite sure what the show, titled “The Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour,” would include.

“It was a blast. I loved every minute of it,” said Josh Minter, 34, of Eugene.

“It was awesome,” echoed Megan Raaske, 26.

O’Brien’s boundless, near-manic energy was at once impressive and worrisome: Can the rail-thin comedian keep this pace up for some 30 cities more?

He’ll be testing himself in the Northwest and Canada before he hits bigger U.S. cities (Los Angeles, April 24-25; New York, June 2-3; the tour ends in Atlanta on June 14). With tickets priced from $40 and up, the tour is virtually sold out.

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