{"id":332070,"date":"2026-03-10T18:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T18:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/332070\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T18:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T18:12:08","slug":"conan-obrien-names-exact-moment-he-knew-that-late-night-shows-were-dying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/332070\/","title":{"rendered":"Conan O’Brien Names Exact Moment He Knew That Late Night Shows Were Dying"},"content":{"rendered":"

Conan O\u2019Brien <\/a>said when he appeared on \u201cHot Ones<\/a>\u201d to eat spicy wings, he realized late night talk shows probably didn\u2019t have a prayer.<\/p>\n

The comedian, who will again be hosting the Oscars<\/a> on Sunday, addressed the dimming prospects for a milieu he starred in for 28 years \u2015 on \u201cLate Night,\u201d \u201cThe Tonight Show\u201d briefly and then \u201cConan.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2024, O\u2019Brien went on a theatrical journey of eating progressively spicier chicken wings while chatting with \u201cHot Ones\u201d host Sean Evans. The clip has received more than 15 million hits<\/a> since it dropped.<\/p>\n

It also ignited a revelation for the comedian.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the moment the scales fell from my eyes,\u201d he told The Hollywood Reporter<\/a> in an interview posted on Monday. \u201cIf a guy can do World Series numbers with overhead that looked, to me, to be about $600, and you have every big star lining up to do his show or \u2018Chicken Shop Date\u2019 \u2026 that\u2019s when I profoundly understood that late night shows are in trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ConanConan O’Brien said his online encounter with spicy chicken drastically altered his outlook on late night talk shows.<\/p>\n

Michael Loccisano via Getty Images<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien bid farewell to the major TV genre in 2021. \u201cTry to do what you love with people you love, and if you can manage that, it\u2019s the definition of heaven on Earth,\u201d he said on his last episode<\/a> of \u201cConan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, the announced May 2026 cancellation<\/a> of \u201cThe Late Show with Stephen Colbert\u201d over what many believe to be political reasons and the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel for awkward remarks<\/a> about Charlie Kirk\u2019s death cast a dark shadow on talk shows\u2019 future.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m of the mind that yes, these shows are going away and will become something else,\u201d O\u2019Brien told THR. \u201cBut I don\u2019t like when other malign forces intervene, because they\u2019re trying to curry favor. That pisses me off.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Conan O\u2019Brien said when he appeared on \u201cHot Ones\u201d to eat spicy wings, he realized late night talk…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":332071,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[458,163611,146,85,46,9027],"class_list":["post-332070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-conan-o","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-late-night"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}