{"id":54908,"date":"2025-10-04T11:22:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T11:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/54908\/"},"modified":"2025-10-04T11:22:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T11:22:09","slug":"dont-speak-truth-to-power-cowardice-is-the-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/54908\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Don’t speak truth to power! Cowardice is the way!’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Conan O’Brien<\/a> is trying to save late night, one counseling session at a time.<\/p>\n

While the former late-night host stopped by Stephen Colbert<\/a>‘s The Late Show on Monday to promote his role in the film If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, O’Brien couldn’t let the interview pass by without commenting on the current state of his former industry.<\/p>\n

“Stephen, how’s late night? What’a going on?” O’Brien asked to open the interview, lampshading Colbert’s cancellation<\/a> and Jimmy Kimmel’s brief suspension<\/a>. “I’ve been out of it for a little bit. Catch me up on what’s happening.”<\/p>\n

Colbert quipped, “I’ll send you the obituary.”<\/p>\n

O’Brien then reminded the host of some advice he once offered by recounting a fond memory.<\/p>\n

\"Scott<\/p>\n

Scott Kowalchyk\/CBS<\/p>\n

Conan O’Brien and Stephen Colbert on ‘The Late Show’<\/p>\n

“I remember just as I was leaving my late-night show, I took you and all the other late-night hosts out,” he began. “Remember this? I took you to a wonderful Sizzler restaurant, and we all had our trays and I told you guys, ‘Take care of late night. If you take care of late night, late night will take care of you.’ Remember?”<\/p>\n

Holding back a laugh, Colbert nodded, “You did say that.”<\/p>\n

O’Brien continued in a faux serious tone, “I said, ‘Don\u2019t do anything to ruffle any feathers.’ Remember? I said that. And I said, ‘Whatever you do, don\u2019t speak truth to power.’ I said, ‘Cowardice is the way.'”<\/p>\n

Before Colbert could get a word in, O’Brien joked, “In 28 years of my show, I never read the news! I had a masturbating bear and a plastic dog. I didn\u2019t even know who was president!”<\/p>\n

The latter comment earned a big laugh from Colbert’s studio audience. As it died down, the host deadpanned, “Thanks for being here, Conan.”<\/p>\n

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly<\/a>‘s free daily newsletter<\/a> to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the last few weeks have seen late-night TV take quite the wallop. In July, CBS announced that The Late Show With Stephen Colbert<\/a> would conclude in May, ending the franchise \u2014 which began with David Letterman<\/a> in 1993 \u2014 after 33 years on the air.<\/p>\n

\"Kevin<\/p>\n

Kevin Winter\/Getty; Cindy Ord\/Getty; Valerie Terranova\/WireImage<\/p>\n

Stephen Colbert; Conan O’Brien; Jimmy Kimmel<\/p>\n

The fact that Colbert had recently criticized CBS’ corporate parent, Paramount Global, for settling a suit<\/a> filed by President Donald Trump<\/a> \u2014 a legal dispute that some experts<\/a> think should have been dismissed on First Amendment grounds \u2014 ahead of a then-pending merger with Skydance that needed FCC approval led some to speculate about the timing of the announcement. The FCC approved the merger a week later. The network has maintained that the cancellation was “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night.”<\/p>\n

Meanwhile over on ABC, Jimmy Kimmel Live<\/a> was pulled from the air for a week<\/a> over comments that Kimmel made about the alleged assassin of conservative activist and staunch Donald Trump supporter, Charlie Kirk. O’Brien previously declared that the suspension “should disturb everyone on the Right, Left, and Center.<\/a>” And while he didn’t delve too deep into the controversies on The Late Show, O’Brien did put jokes aside to address Colbert’s show coming a close and heap some praise on his longtime friend.<\/p>\n

“I, of course, adore you. I love you. I know you as a person and also a comedic force and, like a lot of people, I\u2019m very sad that this chapter is ending,” O’Brien said. “But I also want to say that you are going to do amazing things, you\u2019re going to have a lot of fun.”<\/p>\n

He added, “And the connection you have \u2014 and this isn\u2019t just you, it’s Mr. Kimmel and [Jimmy] Fallon, <\/a>all these guys have \u2014 it’s very special. The connection you have with the audience, you\u2019re taking with you. No one else owns that. That\u2019s yours for the rest of your life.”<\/p>\n

Watch O’Brien’s full appearance on The Late Show above.<\/p>\n

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Conan O’Brien is trying to save late night, one counseling session at a time. While the former late-night…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[458,32460,146,85,46,4176,6676],"class_list":{"0":"post-54908","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-conan-obrien","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-il","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-jimmy-kimmel","14":"tag-stephen-colbert"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54908","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=54908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}