Will time and a new host heal all wounds? Fourteen years after Conan O’Brien was unceremoniously kicked out of NBC’s “The Tonight Show” to make way for the return of Jay Leno, This comedian is finally back.
O’Brien will appear on the April 9 show to promote his new travel series for Max, “Conan O’Brien Must Go,” while speaking with Jimmy Fallon, who took over from Leno in 2014.
After hosting “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” for more than 15 years on NBC, O’Brien returned to host “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” on the network’s flagship late-night show in 2009 after it was announced that Leno would be in charge of the new prime-time show. was promoted to leader. , also broadcast on NBC.
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After seven months of declining ratings for “The Tonight Show” and pressure from affiliates that said “The Jay Leno Show” wasn’t a good enough introduction to their nightly newscasts, NBC cut Leno’s show. The plan was to shorten the time to 30 minutes. And if you set the 11:35 p.m. timeslot, “The Tonight Show” changes to 12:05 a.m.
O’Brien said at the time, “I thought, like my predecessor, we would benefit from some time and, just as importantly, we would also get some ratings support from prime-time programming.” That was my mistaken assumption,” he said in a statement at the time.
He refused to accept the move, and a public spat ended with O’Brien and his staff receiving a multimillion-dollar payout to leave NBC in early 2010.
Conan O’Brien will perform at the 8th Annual Love Rocks New York City Concert for God’s Love on March 7, 2024 at the Beacon Theater in New York City, New York. Conan O’Brien will return as a guest on The Tonight Show after being forced to host the show in favor of Jay Leno. (Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
“And what I want to say to the kids watching is, you can do whatever you want in life, unless Jay Leno wants to do it too,” O’Brien said in his pre-departure monologue. “A lifelong dream come true.
Mr. O’Brien did not stay off the air for too long, returning to late night on the basic cable network TBS in November 2010. “Conan” will be serialized for nearly 11 years. (The first episode surpassed Leno’s “Tonight Show” in ratings.)
In 2012, O’Brien told The Hollywood Reporter that while there was still some underlying resentment, he acknowledged that they once had a “great partnership with NBC.”
“There are moments where you’re like, ‘What the hell just happened? Why did that person do that or say that?'” But then you’re like, ‘Okay, there are things that I can’t control. There’s a lot of, ‘Let’s turn this in,”’ he told the trade publication, adding that he and Leno no longer speak to each other.
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O’Brien’s return to “The Tonight Show” (which he moved from Southern California to New York when Fallon took over) marks the first time Fallon has used his show to extend an olive branch. isn’t it. On her first night as host, Joan Rivers appeared briefly in a bit where celebrities paid to bet that Fallon wouldn’t host. Rivers was hosting Johnny Carson after he had his own late-night show on Fox, when he was infamously kicked out of the show. (After his acrimonious exit from NBC, O’Brien himself made a surprise appearance on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.”)
As for O’Brien, he currently hosts the podcast “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend.” In his new travel show, O’Brien visits countries such as Ireland, Thailand, Argentina and Norway.
The general atmosphere among late-night talk show hosts has also evolved from the days of fierce competition between Leno and CBS’s David Letterman to one of congeniality and even friendship. Last summer, Fallon, Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, John Oliver and Jimmy Kimmel teamed up on a podcast called “Strike Force Five” to support staffers during the writers’ strike. .
