After only seven months on the air, Conan O’Brien, host of “The Tonight Show” on NBC, has performed his last monologue. Well, at least until September. For those of you still unsure about why this has happened, here’s what went down.

The late night feud began earlier in January when NBC announced plans to move Jay Leno back to his old time slot after the 2010 Winter Olympics to boost his subpar ratings. This would have moved O’Brien to Jimmy Fallon’s spot, Fallon to Carson Daly’s spot, and Daly to the land of infomercials and Star Trek reruns.

To put it kindly, NBC has been less than “Must See TV” lately. “Saturday Night Live” always loses viewership in a non-election year, “Law & Order” has seen better days, and it’s rumored that NBC will lose over $200 million during this year’s Winter Olympics.

With all due respect, NBC must be getting pretty desperate if they think Leno is going to save the day. After 20 years on “The Tonight Show,” Leno handed the reins over to O’Brien and stepped down to pursue other projects, namely “The Jay Leno Show.” Soon after leaving his 17-year stint on “Late Night,” O’Brien packed up his family and his writers and made the move from New York to Los Angeles to take over. But after only seven months of having both shows on the air, with Leno before the news and O’Brien after, NBC soon learned that 9 p.m. is not the appropriate time for a variety show meant for an older audience.

Soon after NBC announced the schedule change, O’Brien made it known that he would not be a part of the deal. In an open letter to the New York Times, O’Brien said the change “will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting” and “I cannot participate in what I honestly believe is its destruction.”In the midst of this battle, loyal fans have been coming out of the woodwork to support the redheaded host they grew up with. In the last week of “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien,” fans went to extreme lengths to show their disagreement with NBC. The popular Facebook group “I’m With Coco” is closing in on one million fans, viewership increased by 50 percent during O’Brien’s last week, and on Jan. 18 fans held rallies in New York, Chicago, Seattle, and Los Angeles in protest. If only this kind of loyalty had existed during the first seven months.

Even after a very public brawl with NBC, O’Brien expressed his gratitude for a wonderful 17 years on his last episode with the network Jan. 22. He also warned young fans that watched in the last week to not become cynical about the situation.

Until after the Olympics, O’Brien’s time slot will be filled with reruns of the show from thepast month. It has been confirmed that  March 1, Leno will return to his old spot on “The Tonight Show.” According to his contract with NBC, O’Brien is not legally allowed to host another show until September, when the terms expire.

So, until then, O’Brien left his fans with these words of advice:

“Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard, and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.”