The Hollywood Reporter has some information on what was in Conan O'Brien's Tonight Show contract and how it may have impacted what NBC did and said. Thanks to Marc Wielage for letting me know about this.
The most interesting thing is that in a 2002 amendment to O'Brien's Late Night contract, he had language that said he'd be installed as host of The Tonight Show if Jay Leno left. This is the kind of clause David Letterman probably wished he'd gotten when he was hosting Late Night and that Carson guy was hosting Tonight.
This evening on Countdown, Keith Olbermann and Bill Carter discussed whether the Dave/Oprah/Jay Super Bowl ad represents a cease-fire in The Late Night Wars. Consensus: Maybe, maybe not. I do think the commercial benefited all three of those folks. Carter revealed that — surprise, surprise — he's working on a book on the whole Conan/Jay rotation.
The first edition of Carter's book on the Dave/Jay mess, The Late Shift, ended on the assumption that Letterman and CBS had won a decisive victory, that Jay and NBC had lost, and that was that. Game over. Later, in the second edition, he added a chapter that essentially said, "Oh, by the way…it all changed." And this time, he was cautious to not suggest the lead might not change back. One assumes he'll be equally cautious with the next book.