N.Y.C. Mayor Makes Play For 'Tonight Show'

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Mayor Michael Bloomberg did some New York City boosting Tuesday by trying to get Conan O’Brien to promise to bring the “Tonight” show back to New York when he takes over as host from Jay Leno in 2009.

“It’s not up to me, I work for the man. If he says `yeah,’ we’re fine. So we’ll talk,” O’Brien told Bloomberg, who appeared on his current NBC show, “Late Night with Conan O’Brien.”

The show, with Johnny Carson as its host, moved from New York to Burbank, Calif., in 1972.

NBC announced last fall that O’Brien will succeed Leno.

“The rumor is you’ll get a new show one of these days,” Bloomberg hinted to O’Brien, who earlier had been pestering Bloomberg to help him get a park permit for the “Late Night” softball team.

In exchange for a permit, Bloomberg told O’Brien he couldn’t leave New York, and the studio audience cheered.

O’Brien said he needed some incentives to sweeten the deal, such as renaming the Holland Tunnel “The Cone Zone.”

Credit: Yahoo/AP