Conan O'Brien Announces 'Official' End Date For TBS Talk Show, But Promises Special Guests Before It's Over — Watch
The end of an era! Conan O’Brien has announced that his TBS talk show will officially come to an end on June 24.
O'Brien broke the news on Monday, May 3. "We’re making it official," he said. "We are winding down our TBS show. The plan is to reemerge on HBO Max sometime in the near future with what I think will be my fourth iteration of a program.
"Imagine a cooking show with puppets, and you’ll have the wrong idea," he joked.
The 58-year-old explained, "Anyway, we’re going to be making this switch. Now some of you are probably wondering why am I doing this? Why end things here at TBS? I’ll tell you that a very old Buddhist monk once told me that to pick something up you must first put something down. I’ll be honest with you, he was drunk out of his skull and very belligerent. I maintain you can pick up two things if you use both hands. He just got mad and started swinging at me, so I ended the conversation and took his advice.
"The plan is we’re going to be showing a lot of clips of our favorite moments from the last 11 years," O'Brien explained. "We’re going to have some special guests, I think we’re going to create a really fun, special environment. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun."
O'Brien said that for the last 11 years, "the people at Turner have been absolutely lovely" and gave him a home when he needed it. He added that he would like the final run of the show to be a "look back" at their time.
Fans quickly expressed their thoughts on the news. "He is the rockstar among talkshow hosts. Also. He actually IS a rockstar! Much love to Conan and the whole crew," one social media user said.
"To me Conan was different from anything I had seen. He really dug into himself and his own show in the funniest way by not taking himself or the show seriously. A true legend. Can't wait for his HBO show. Will sign up for that just to see him. The legend continues!" another wrote.
"Conan is going to be so much better going forward. He just gets stronger and stronger," a third fan insisted.
O'Brien will still host Conan Without Borders for TBS, TV Live reported.
O'Brien's HBO Max show was initially announced in November. "In 1993, Johnny Carson gave me the best advice of my career: 'As soon as possible, get to a streaming platform,'" O’Brien said at the time. "I’m thrilled that I get to continue doing whatever the hell it is I do on HBO Max, and I look forward to a free subscription."
O'Brien is currently the longest-serving late-night talk show host in the U.S. Conan premiered on TBS in 2010, but O'Brien initially took over NBC's Late Show from David Letterman in 1993.
