The new Conan O’Brien show on TBS has a very easy to remember name, the comedian announced on Tuesday. In a YouTube video released Tuesday morning, O’Brien revealed the name of his new TBS show is, simply: Conan.
Conan O'Brien (YouTube)
“It’s Conan, simple, pure, like the guy himself,” Conan O’Brien said in the YouTube video announcement. O’Brien joked in the video that he spent millions on legal and media research teams to come up with the name for his new show.
Conan O’Brien infamously walked away from NBC’s Tonight Show earlier this year after the network tried to bump him to a later time slot to move Jay Leno back to late night. O’Brien reportedly received a severance package of an estimated $45 million, but had to agree not to appear on television again until the fall.
Conan will premiere on TBS before Lopez Tonight on November 8.
Conan O’Brien launched his Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television comedy tour Monday night in Oregon. During his debut performance, Conan O’Brien mocked his former NBC bosses – though never by name – and joked about his new late night show on TBS.
“I’m sure some of you heard I got a new job starting tomorrow,” Conan O’Brien told the crowd in Eugene, Oregon. “I’m the new manager of the Eugene Banana Republic.”
While O’Brien refrained from mentioning his former network by name, he did blatantly make fun of NBC during his time on the stage. “I’m not allowed to say the word ‘peacock,'” O’Brien joked, “but I can say the words ‘pea’ and ‘cock.'” (Check out a list of the remaining tour dateshere.)
The former Tonight Show host listed the “eight stages of grief after losing your talk show” for the audience: “denial; blame myself; blame everyone else around me; anger; paranoia, 36 hours of Red Bull and Halo; buy everything Amazon says I would also like… I bought a Team Edward thong!; and get your ass to Eugene, Oregon!”
Reviews of the first show in the Conan O’Brien tour have been overwhelmingly positive in general. Rolling Stone called the performance “extremely funny” and the Hollywood Reporter said the show was “consistently amusing.” Fans who attended the show were all over Twitter posting rave reviews of Conan’s return to the stand-up stage.
O’Brien heads off next to Vancouver, British Columbia before returning to the U.S. on April 16 for a stop in Spokane, Washington. Tickets to most of the remaining shows – including Vancouver and Spokane – are still available but may not be for long.
Conan O’Brien will be returning to television in November, but it won’t be on the network everyone expected it to be. The Emmy-winning late night talk show host will begin airing on TBS in the fall Monday through Thursdays at 11 p.m.
The announcement of Conan O’Brien’s new show came on the same day he launched a nationwide comedy tour in Eugene, Oregon. (Tickets are still available throughStubHub.com.) Many had expected Conan O’Brien to hook up with Fox for his next television project or go directly into syndication.
Conan O'Brien
O’Brien reportedly began serious negotiations with TBS only last week, eventually settling on a deal that would put him on at 11 p.m., bumping Lopez Tonight to midnight. Host George Lopez reportedly asked personally if O’Brien would consider hopping aboard the TBS train.
“I can’t think of anything better than doing my show with Conan as my lead-in,†Lopez said. “It’s the beginning of a new era in late-night comedy.â€
“The good news: I will be doing a show on TBS starting in November!” O’Brien posted on his Twitter feed Monday. “In three months I’ve gone from network television to Twitter to performing live in theaters, and now I’m headed to basic cable. My plan is working perfectly,†O’Brien joked.
Conan O’Brien ditched NBC in January after a late night shake-up threatened to bump his show to a later time slot he was uncomfortable with. NBC’s settlement deal with O’Brien on his departure included a clause to keep him off the air until at least September.
“Conan has been the comedic voice for a generation. TBS already has a huge audience of young comedy lovers, and Conan’s show will give these fans even more reasons to watch our network,†said Steve Koonin, president of Turner Entertainment Networks.
We look forward to seeing what Conan’s new show is going to look like and whether he’ll be able to get the ratings on TBS he struggled to achieve on NBC.
Conan O’Brien is reportedly close to signing a $40 million exit deal with NBC. O’Brien is expected to receive the bulk of the payout, with the rest going to staffers for severance pay and contract buyouts.
Conan O'Brien (Photo: John J. Kruzel/American Forces Press Service)
Under the $40 million deal for Conan O’Brien from NBC, The Tonight Show host would not be able to launch a new television show until fall, according to the Wall Street Journal. O’Brien would take home just over $30 million from the deal.
The remainder of the payout would be given to O’Brien’s Tonight Show staffers and crew. Many of them moved from Los Angeles to New York with O’Brien to work on The Tonight Show and were reportedly upset and angry that they might not be compensated properly for losing their jobs.
The terms of the deal also ban Conan O’Brien from bad-mouthing his former employers once he leaves the network. Not that he hasn’t already had his fill of trashing NBC since this whole drama started.
