The 2010 TIME 100 Poll

Cast your votes for the leaders, artists, innovators and icons who you think are the most influential people in the world. Though official voting for inclusion on the TIME 100 list has now closed, with Mir-Hossein Mousavi having won the honor, users can continue to vote for their favorites until the list is revealed on Thursday, April 29th

2010 Candidates

Conan O'Brien

By TIME STAFFThursday, Apr. 01, 2010
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Jeffrey Mayer / WireImage / Getty Images

Age: 46
Occupation: Unemployed talk-show host
Previous TIME 100 Appearances: 0

For the most influential man without a job in showbiz, getting canned may have been a strange sort of promotion. Being booted from The Tonight Show for Jay Leno was a disappointment, but it also turned O'Brien into a kind of TV rebel hero, inspiring protests from Team Coco, launching a nationwide stage show and — possibly — parlaying his new status into launching a rival talk show for a new network.

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