The end of a historic comedy era.
Conan O’Brien will be ending his 11 year-run as the host of a late-night talk show on TBS.
“Conan” will officially end on June 24.
As announced last year as part of a new deal with WarnerMedia, O’Brien will shift to developing a new show for HBO Max, which will be a departure from his current traditional talk-show format, while continuing to produce new “Conan Without Borders” specials for TBS.
O’Brien, of course, moved to TBS in 2010 after he parted ways with NBC over a dispute regarding the future of the “Tonight Show.” NBC wanted to push O’Brien out of the way and launch a new show with Jay Leno at 11:35 p.m.; that was a breach of the promise that he would host “Tonight” as NBC’s flagship late-night series.
“Conan” aired as a nightly hour-long program until 2018; in 2019, it was retooled as a half-hour without a studio band or a desk area. Last year, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the show shifted to O’Brien’s home, and then in the summer moved to the Coronet Theatre in Los Angeles without a studio audience.
O’Brien has filmed multiple travel specials since 2015, taking “Conan Without Borders” to 13 countries including Mexico, Israel, Haiti, Greenland, and Cuba, among other locales. He’s the longest-serving current late-night talk show host in the U.S., having started his late-night career in 1993 when NBC tapped him to take over as host of “Late Night.”
More recently, O’Brien has hosted the podcast “Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend,” which has amassed more than 185 million downloads since its 2018 launch. His production company, Conaco, and digital brand, Team Coco, continue to grow with branded content, live events, merchandise, comedy specials and podcasts.
