Mielr said:

The story I always heard was that Jay told NBC in 2004 that he was thinking about retiring in 2009. Conan's contract was up for renegotiation at that time, so he asked that he be promised Jay's spot when he left. Jay changed his mind, but they already had a contract with Conan for him to helm the Tonight Show in '09, so they appeased Jay by giving him a 10pm show.

if that's true(and I find it more believable than the previous story told earlier in this this thread), I'm on Conan's side all the way.

btw, I loved the speech he gave about not being cynical.