The relationships between late-night television hosts in the US have often been rather prickly affairs. Take the Conan O’Brien and Jay Leno feud back in 2010, which saw things between the two hosts boil over into a rather public spat.

How refreshing then to see Conan O’Brien lavish some praise on David Letterman, even imploring viewers to head on over and watch the final broadcast of The Late Show with David Letterman. Here’s Huffington Post:

“Conan” starts at 11 p.m. while “Late Show” starts at 11:35 p.m., and O’Brien used part of the first 35 minutes of his program to pay tribute to his long-time mentor, recalling the time he took over “Late Night,” the show Letterman started at NBC…

Conan’s show was initially a ratings disaster, tanking hard until a certain celebrity offered to make an appearance:

Dave wasn’t just the biggest star on late-night at the time, he was the biggest thing on television. He didn’t go on other people’s shows. It was like the Beatles asking Maury Povich if they could stop by and sing a couple of tunes. It was that absurd…

No great surprise then to see Conan returning the favour in what will be remembered as one of late-night TV’s more touching moments. Good work ginger.

[source:huffingtonpost]