Conan O'Brien
Conan O'Brien was less than a year into his long-awaited Tonight Show tenure in January when all late-night hell broke loose. Soon, former host Jay Leno was back behind the storied desk, and Conan was off the air with more than $30 million in severance and a contract that forbid him to appear on television for the next several months. Rather than disappearing, the jilted talk-show host connected with enthusiastic fans online — Team Coco didn't need NBC — and performed across the country on the Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour. With much fanfare and a beard, Conan returned to TV in November on a TBS show he could really call his own, going so far as to name it Conan. "I did it so I'd be harder to replace," he (half?) joked.