History of Late Night TV

In 1993, when it was announced that Conan O'Brien would replace David Letterman on the 12:35 am late night time slot, most had the same reaction. Conan who? This Boston native and Harvard grad had worked as a writer for The Simpsons and Saturday Night Live but had little name recognition. 

 

For the first year or two, Conan got off to a rough start at NBC. But eventually he became more comfortable and hit his stride, attracting an audience, especially college aged young males. Certain regular bits featuring Conan's absurdist humor helped to build the audience. Popular segments included "If they Mated", "In the Year 2000" and "Triumph the Insult Comic Dog".

 

 

His sidekick was Andy Richter, his announcer Joel Goddard and his bandleader was Max Weinberg, best known as Bruce Springsteen's drummer.

 

In a blunder of epic proportions, NBC granted Conan the job as the host of the Tonight Show, which he hosted for seven months during 2009-2010. NBC had moved Jay Leno to a 10 pm time slot but that did not work out. The ratings were dismal so NBC knew that a change had to be made. They wanted to move Leno to 11:35 pm for 30 minutes and air Conan from 12:05 am-1:05 am. O'Brien refused and worked out an exit package where NBC would pay him $45 million. $12 million would go to his staff who had moved from New York to Los Angeles for the show.

 

In November of 2010, Conan premiered a new late night talk show on TBS, simply called Conan. Conan garnered plenty of support from fans from the TBS "I'm with Coco" campaign on social media. In 2018, Conan launched his podcast "Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend." This is a weekly show where he talks with celebrities. He also has a companion podcast called "Conan O'Brien Needs a Fan" in which he talks with non-celebrities from around the world. In 2021, Conan ended his TBS show. In 2024, Conan launched a travel show on MAX called "Conan O'Brien Must Go." In this show he meets non-celebrities he has met through his podcast "Conan O'Brien Needs a Fan."

 

Editor's commentary: Did Conan get a raw deal? Absolutely. Plus this debacle hurt the reputation of the once mighty peacock network, NBC which has fallen a long way since the days of Warren Littlefield and the era of "Must See TV". This  debacle also didn't help the public perception of Jay Leno. Many fans of David Letterman feel that Leno and his manager manipulated the NBC brass to hire Leno rather than going with Johnny's choice (Letterman).