Jay Leno's Departure Date Set

(andPOP) - Jay Leno will make his final appearance on "The Tonight Show" on May 29, 2009, with replacement Conan O'Brien making his official debut the following Monday, June 1.

Amid speculation that Leno may be hired by ABC, NBC execs also say they are still talking with the comedian about staying at their network in a different role, but no agreement has yet been reached.

Leno himself was on hand to help NBC executives make the announcement about his departure date at a meeting of the Television Critics Association in Beverly Hills Monday.

The network seated Leno, disguised in a bald cap, glasses and goatee, among reporters, where he got right to the point by asking when he would leave the show.

ABC's late-night host Jimmy Kimmel played a similar joke at a TCA meeting last week, where he posed as a reporter and asked ABC Entertainment boss Steve McPherson about the network's potential interest in Leno, wondering if he was "afraid that if you replace Jimmy Kimmel he might do something crazy to you or your car?"

McPherson told critics he thought Kimmel, who is under contract at ABC until 2010, and Leno would be compatible, though he said he couldn't believe NBC would let Leno go "at the top of his game."

Leno's successor O'Brien currently hosts NBC's "Late Night" program, which airs immediately after "The Tonight Show."

As previously announced, Jimmy Fallon of "Saturday Night Live" fame will take over "Late Night" hosting duties when O'Brien leaves.