Conan O’Brien Is Returning to The Tonight Show 14 Years After Exit as Host

Conan O’Brien will be a guest on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon next week, marking his first appearance on the late night show since he left as the host in 2010. O’Brien, who hosted Late Night with Conan O’Brien for 16 seasons, was recruited to host The Tonight Show in 2009. Rather than retiring as he had previously planned, O’Brien’s predecessor Jay Leno launched a show, first in primetime and then shifted so late that would serve as a lead-in to The Tonight Show. Both The Jay Leno Show and The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien suffered in the ratings during this time, and NBC decided to replace O’Brien with Leno again, rather than letting Leno get away.

O’Brien is set to appear in the April 9th episode of The Tonight Show, with Nicole Richie and musical guest Benson Boone. O’Brien will be on the show to promote Conan O’Brien Must Go, his upcoming travel series on Max.

Conan O’Brien Must Go will premiere on the streaming platform on April 18th.

O’Brien previously appeared via video in a 2018 Tonight Show sketch featuring Fallon and Stephen Colbert.

O’Brien recently announced the launch of his own FAST channel. Last May, Samsung announced that a new FAST channel dedicated to 24-hour Conan O’Brien marathons will be coming soon to Samsung TV+. The channel will not re-run entire episodes of O’Brien’s podcasts, but will instead air half-hour “best-of” compilations, which will presumably cut down on monologue jokes and promotional interviews that feel especially out of date years after they originally ran on TV. At least at first, it appears as though the clips will come exclusively from Conan, not Late Night With Conan O’Brien and The Tonight Show Starring Conan O’Brien. Clips from those shows have been available on the Team Coco website and YouTube channel over the years, but O’Brien’s production company doesn’t own them free and clear.

Conan O’Brien Must Go sees him visit new friends he’s met through his podcast, Conan O’Brien Needs a Fan. That show, a spinoff of his celebrity interview show Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, features short interviews with O’Brien’s fans from around the world. O’Brien will be making stops in Norway, Thailand, Argentina, and Ireland during the show’s first season. It is produced by Conaco and O’Brien serves as executive producer on the series, along with his longtime (long-suffering?) producer Jeff Ross.