Posted in: CBS, TV | Tagged: colbert, stephen colbert, the late show with stephen colbert

Late Show: Conan O'Brien Offers Colbert Some Post-Late-Night Advice

Conan O'Brien has some advice to pass along to "Late Show" host Stephen Colbert regarding the amazing things he can do after his CBS run ends.

Late-night TV will be less funny when The Late Show ends its 33-year run on CBS, as well as its nearly 11-year run under host Stephen Colbert, which premiered in 2015, succeeding David Letterman after he retired from the series. That doesn't mean Colbert's life as an entertainer must end as former fellow late-night host Conan O'Brien, who hosted not only NBC's Late Night, like Letterman, but also enjoyed a too-brief stint on The Tonight Show before his predecessor Jay Leno reclaimed the gig and later, landing his feet elsewhere on TBS and getting that itch out under his titled series Conan. The two appeared together at an annual fundraiser for Montclair Film, hosted by Colbert's wife, Evelyn Colbert, in Newark, New Jersey, to speak candidly about their respective careers, with O'Brien offering advice to Colbert on his potential future.

O'Brien Boasts Late Show Host Colbert on a Bright Future Beyond Late Night

As the two traded back and forth about their careers, O'Brien asked Colbert if he considered quitting when CBS announced The Late Show's cancellation and its final show airing in May 2026, "I ended my thing four years ago, and God damn it, I've had so much fun. I've really enjoyed myself, and it was a great lesson for me," O'Brien said (via The Hollywood Reporter). "These shows are just a way for Stephen Colbert to relate to people; they are not the way. There are so many different things that you can do and that you're going to do that are going to give you enormous amounts of pleasure, and you're going to be really great at it. You're going to have people on the street saying, 'Oh my God, I loved …' and it's going to be this other thing that you're doing. You're just not there yet, you haven't begun that yet."

Reflecting on his time, Colbert said, "This is a really old television form; one of the oldest and most successful forms that through radio is tied to vaudeville. I love who I work with, and I enjoy what I do. I'm kind of sad for the form; that there's one less place for people to have that experience." O'Brien's tenure in Late Night started in 1993 in succeeding Letterman, who left for CBS to start The Late Show, and it ran until 2009 when Leno left The Tonight Show for its ill-fated prime time series called The Jay Leno Show. When O'Brien's Tonight Show fell short of expectations, NBC bought out his contract and installed Leno back as host, with the network and comedian getting eviscerated along the way by Letterman and ABC's Jimmy Kimmel. On his way out, O'Brien also punched up as many times as he could at his network and then executive, Jeff Zucker, with his remaining time on NBC. O'Brien would leave for Conan on TBS, where it would run until 2021.

TBS abandoned its late-night commitments, initially by cancelling George Lopez Tonight in 2011, and O'Brien ending his series. Letterman took his talents to streaming on Netflix for the straight talk series My Next Guest Needs No Introduction in 2018. Leno stayed away for good in 2014, letting then Late Night host Jimmy Fallon, permanently host The Tonight Show, and now hosts the CNBC-turned-YouTube series Jay Leno Garage, while also remaining a trash person for being the ONLY host to not push back against the Trump administration's assault on late night TV while Kimmel, Letterman, Late Night host Seth Meyers, Daily Show host Jon Stewart, and Last Week Tonight host John Oliver showed solidarity for Colbert following his firing announcement. For more on the event, you can check out the entire article.

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