Conan O’Brien knows a thing or five about late-night talk shows.
So he spoke with plenty of authority when he was honored as an inductee at the 27th Television Academy Hall of Fame ceremony Saturday (Aug. 16) in Los Angeles.
O’Brien was a leading voice of late-night TV for 28 years.
He hosted NBC’s “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” from 1993 to 2009 and “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien” briefly from 2009 to 2010 followed by “Conan” on TBS from 2010 to 2021.
The future of late night?
Admittedly not bright, O’Brien said at the hall of fame ceremony.
“Yes, late-night television, as we have known it since around 1950, is going to disappear,” he said. “But those voices are not going anywhere. People like Stephen Colbert are too talented and too essential to go away. It’s not gonna happen.”
Last month, Colbert, a Montclair resident, announced on CBS’ “The Late Show” that not only was his time with the show coming to an end in 2026, but the network had also decided to completely axe “The Late Show.”
“Yeah, he’s not going anywhere,” said O’Brien, 62, continuing his hall of fame remarks (see clip below). “Stephen is going to evolve and shine brighter than ever in a new format that he controls completely. So technology can do whatever they want. It can make television a pill. It can make television shows a high-protein, chewable, vanilla-flavored capsule with added fiber. It still won’t matter. If the stories are good, if the performances are honest and inspired, if the people making it are brave and have goodwill, then somewhere, two weird siblings huddled in their crowded living room just off Route 9 outside Boston are going to be moved.”
Stephen Colbert’s last episode of “The Late Show” is set to air in 2026.Scott Kowalchyk/CBS
That last Boston-area bit was a tribute to O’Brien’s own upbringing in Brookline, Massachusetts.
The former late-night host has himself proven that changing technology and trends can’t keep good comedy and storytelling down.
Since 2018, O’Brien has hosted the successful podcast “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend,” which SiriusXM bought in a $150 million deal in 2022 that included his podcast network and all of his Team Coco output.
O’Brien parlayed a segment on the podcast called “Conan O’Brien Needs a Fan” into the Emmy-winning HBO Max series “Conan O’Brien Must Go.”
It’s a travel show in the spirit of his previous travel series as a late-night host (like “Conan Without Borders”), one that sees him visit fans he’s interviewed on his podcast in their home countries.
Last month, CBS executives said the decision to end Colbert’s “Late Show” was “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night.”
“It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount,” they said.
“Other matters” meant the then-impending merger of Paramount, parent company of CBS, with Skydance.
So it follows that many link Colbert’s dismissal next year to his on-air criticism of Paramount’s concessions to President Donald Trump.
Just before the decision to bring the long “Late Show” run to an end was announced, Colbert addressed Paramount’s $16 million settlement with Trump. The president had sued the company for $10 billion over claims about the editing of a “60 Minutes” interview with Vice President Kamala Harris.
“As someone who has always been a proud employee of this network, I am offended and I don’t know if anything will ever repair my trust in this company,” Colbert, 61, said during his monologue. “But just takin’ a stab at it, I’d say $16 million would help.”
He continued to skewer Paramount in the segment.
Protesters outside “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” in July after Paramount paid a settlement to President Donald Trump and CBS announced the cancellation of the late-night show.Charly Triballeau | AFP via Getty Images
“I believe this kind of complicated financial settlement with a sitting government official has a technical name in legal circles,” Colbert said. “It’s ‘big fat bribe.’ Because this all comes as Paramount’s owners are trying to get the Trump administration to approve the sale of our network to a new owner, Skydance … And some of the TV typers out there are blogging that once Skydance gets CBS, the new owner’s desire to please Trump could ‘put pressure on late-night host and frequent Trump critic Stephen Colbert.’”
The merger between Skydance and Paramount became a done deal earlier this month after the Federal Communications Commission approved the merger in late July.
Colbert has hosted “The Late Show” since 2015. His last episode will air in May 2026.
O’Brien, who hosted the 2025 Oscars, was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor earlier this year. He appears in the upcoming A24 movie “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” opposite Rose Byrne, which will be in theaters Oct. 10.
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Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com and followed at @AmyKup on Twitter/X, @amykup.bsky.social on Bluesky and @kupamy on Instagram and Threads.
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