The main plot regarding the two janitors—Subhas and Khonani—battling for the late-night shift at 11:30 p.m. closely mirrored the feud between television hosts Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien over the hosting job of "The Tonight Show". Similar to the feud, in this "30 Rock" episode, Khonani signed a contract five years ago to take over the 11:30 p.m. from Subhas and asked Jack Donaghy to make it happen, which Jack does. In September 2004, it was announced by the NBC network that Jay Leno would be succeeded by Conan O'Brien in 2009 as host of "The Tonight Show". Five years later, Leno would host his final episode of "The Tonight Show" in May 2009; similarly, Jack informs Subhas that Khonani will take over that shift. Subhas is not thrilled with this, resulting in Jack moving Subhas to the 10:00 shift; O'Brien took over as host of "The Tonight Show" in June 2009. NBC, afraid of losing Leno to another network, gave him a new nightly prime time series, "The Jay Leno Show", which premiered in September 2009 at 10:00 p.m. In "Khonani", as he begins his shift, Khonani is unhappy as there is no trash to pick up as it already has been collected by Subhas. As a result, Subhas goes back to the 11:30 shift, and Khonani leaves NBC to continue his janitorial duties at Foxwoods Resort Casino. "The Jay Leno Show" debuted to good ratings, however, as the show continued it would garner low ratings, resulting in NBC proposing that the show air at 11:35 p.m. and that "The Tonight Show" be moved to 12:05. O'Brien, however, rejected the timeslot. In January 2010, O'Brien reached a deal with the network that would see him leave "The Tonight Show" on January 22, 2010, and two months later Leno returned as host of "The Tonight Show" on March 1, 2010. In April 2010, O'Brien signed a deal with the cable network TBS to host a new late-night talk show.