On Friday the final episode of “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien” aired, putting an end to two weeks of controversy, rumors and arguably some of the best late night television in a long time.

But now that the dust is finally settling on “Tonight Show”-gate, with O’Brien and his staff receiving a reported $45 million in severance from NBC for agreeing to leave the show a mere seven months into its run and Jay Leno preparing to take back his old show on March 1, the real question is — what next?

Though Leno might seem like the winner of the whole debacle, he definitely hasn’t improved his image among the younger generations, who have largely supported O’Brien.

“I’m with Coco,” the banner, catch-phrase and viral campaign coined by Los Angeles artist Mike Mitchell, has created a cultural phenomenon online, where O’Brien has become the beleaguered hero of the social networking set.

Leno has been painted as the villain by everyone from David Letterman to Rosie O’Donnell, and while “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” v. 2.0 might lose some ratings after all is said and done, it’s unlikely to make a big dent in the veteran comic’s numbers.

The bigger question is: What will happen to O’Brien? According to the deal he made with NBC last week, O’Brien can start a new show after Sept. 1. So the comedian has the next seven months to find a new home.

The most likely option is Fox, who made their interest in O’Brien clear mere days after the whole mess began. Fox is the only one of the four big networks that doesn’t have a late night program (the other three being NBC, ABC and CBS), and O’Brien is much less of a risk than the network’s last attempt at a late night talk show, “The Chevy Chase Show,” which lasted a little over a month in 1993.

Chances are, O’Brien’s fans will follow him wherever he ends up, so the show would pretty much be a guaranteed win for Fox. O’Brien also meshes nicely with the network’s Sunday night comedy line-up — centered on “The Simpsons” and “Family Guy” — which targets much of the same audience. Chances are, if a deal is reached the network will put O’Brien at 11:35p.m. to compete with Leno and Letterman.

Comedy Central would also be a great fit for the comic, though the network already has two popular late night shows —“The Daily Show with John Stewart” and “The Colbert Report.” They would have to do some shuffling to make it work, but unlike any of the big networks Comedy Central doesn’t have to worry about pleasing affiliates.

On most nights Comedy Central’s prime time line-up is mostly comprised of “South Park” or “Scrubs” repeats before “The Daily Show” starts at 11 p.m. Pushing Stewart and Colbert each back a half-hour to give Conan an 11:30p.m. spot doesn’t seem impossible, and the idea of a Stewart-Colbert-O’Brien line-up is pretty awesome.

ABC is the only network to flat-out show no interest whatsoever in O’Brien, as they seem pretty satisfied with the news show “Nightline” at 11:30p.m. and “The Jimmy Kimmel Show” at midnight.

CBS is also an unlikely option, as they already have Letterman and Craig Ferguson in the top late night spots. But rumors have been flying that Letterman, 62, could name O’Brien his successor to spite Leno and NBC.

O’Brien has briefly commented on the matter, saying in a show last week that he would be “making a move to Fox… Megan Fox.”

O’Brien has several options, but the biggest thing for him should be capitalizing on the popularity and positive image he’s built over the last few weeks, as his show has received its highest ratings in months.

If he’s smart he won’t just sit back and relax between now and when his new show theoretically begins in September — he could capitalize on the viral “I’m with Coco” campaign by releasing videos online, which likely won’t break his deal with NBC.

Regardless of what he does, Conan isn’t going to disappear any time soon. As the recent rallies at Universal Studios in support of Conan have shown, plenty of people are still with “Coco.”