Posted in: CBS, TV | Tagged: conan o'brien, stephen colbert

Conan O'Brien Has High Hopes for Stephen Colbert (But Not Late-Night)

Though he doesn't have high hopes for the future of late-night, Conan O'Brien believes Stephen Colbert's voice is "too essential" to go away.

If there's anyone with a unique perspective on the late-night hosting experience, it's Conan O'Brien. Not only was he able to build his own foundation and legacy, succeeding David Letterman on NBC's Late Night, but he was also able to host The Tonight Show, even if his tenure was brief and tenuous at best, and landed promptly back on his feet with his self-titled late-night series Conan on TBS. While his late-night days are behind him with his final TBS show in 2021, O'Brien has remained active on the podcast sphere in Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend on top of his original programming and occasional acting gig. While all his peers reacted at the sudden cancellation of Stephen Colbert's Late Show, with his final episode expected to air in May 2026 on CBS, the former Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons writer finally chimed in with a dramatically different take at the Television Academy Hall of Fame.

Conan O'Brien on "Seismic Change" in Television Affecting Late Night

With settlements with the Donald Trump administration from major studios like ABC and Paramount, Colbert, who's largely been critical of Trump alongside his peers Jimmy Kimmel on ABC, Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers on NBC, was cancelled by Paramount citing unsustainable financial costs despite the series looming 10th anniversary with the series' debut on September 8th, 2015. Kimmel, Fallon, Meyers, HBO's John Oliver (host of Last Week Tonight), and Paramount-owned Comedy Central's Jon Stewart (host of The Daily Show), appeared on Colbert's program in the audience as a show of solidarity. Letterman later joined in on his YouTube channel, criticizing CBS and Paramount in support of Colbert. The only one breaking the line was former Tonight Show host Jay Leno, who blamed Colbert's firing on late-night being too polarizing and political, not trying to appeal to "both sides."

"There's a lot of fear about the future of television, and rightfully so," O'Brien said (via Variety). "The life we've all known for almost 80 years is undergoing seismic change…this might just be my nature. I choose not to mourn what is lost, because I think in the most essential way, what we have is not changing at all. Streaming changes the pipeline, but the connection, the talent, the ideas that come into our homes… I think it's the focus. We have proof here tonight." Citing shows like Abbott Elementary and Hacks in terms of creative opportunities in Hollywood, O'Brien continued, "It's all electrifying a new generation of viewers. Yes, late-night television, as we have known it since around 1950, is going to disappear. But those voices are not going anywhere. People like Stephen Colbert are too talented and too essential to go away."

Since leaving late-night TV behind, something that Letterman also did, retiring from The Late Show in 2015, with his Netflix talk series My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, "I've dabbled in other things, but that's where I've lived," O'Brien said. "And for those of you under 40, late-night television was a service designed to distract college students until science would perfect the internet and online pornography. Boy, did they get that right." He also projected a brighter outlook for Colbert, "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 of goodwill."

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