Conan O’Brien Reveals He Chose to Exit Late Night Before He ‘Was Asked to Leave’
"I thought, 'I've loved it, but you can kind of see which way things [are] going,'" the comedian adds The post Conan O’Brien Reveals He Chose to Exit Late Night Before He ‘Was Asked to Leave’ appeared first on TheWrap .
Comedian Conan O'Brien revealed on Wednesday that he decided to leave his late-night television show "Conan" before reaching the 30-year mark as the late-night television landscape underwent significant changes. During his appearance at Bloomberg's Screentime, O'Brien confessed that he could "see which way things were going" before ending his TBS show in 2021.
He explained that he had already spent about 28 years working in late-night television across NBC and Turner networks before making the choice. O'Brien revealed, "I knew I wanted to wrap up my late night gig soon," noting that he had not considered staying until his 30th year. He added, "And so, in true sort of Irish tradition, I wanted to leave the party before I was asked to leave."
O'Brien discussed the current state of late-night television, which had seen the departure of Stephen Colbert's "The Late Show" in May. When asked about networks claiming that late-night TV does not make economic sense, O'Brien highlighted how the industry has changed dramatically since its inception in the late 1940s. He explained that stations would go off the air at 10:30 PM, leaving unused time that networks later transformed into valuable late-night programming.
O'Brien compared this to discovering an attic in a Victorian house, revealing untapped potential. He acknowledged that cost-cutting measures were necessary as late-night television faced competition from HBO, Cinemax, and other networks. O'Brien defended the industry's need for efficiency, comparing it to the automotive industry's evolution.
He admitted that he might have been upset about the changes but recognized it as a cycle in the entertainment industry. O'Brien also commented on the rise of content creators on streaming platforms, emphasizing that the competition has intensified due to the proliferation of online content. Despite the industry changes, O'Brien expressed satisfaction with his current situation, stating, "Everybody works very hard, but there's not a ton of us, and we make something. The margins are fantastic, so it feels like everyone has got a crucial role."
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