Conan O’Brien to End TBS Late-Night Show in 2021, Sets Weekly HBO Max Variety Series

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Conan O’Brien will end his self-titled TBS late-night show in June 2021.

In addition, O’Brien has signed a deal with HBO Max for a new weekly variety series.

More to come…

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Since HBO and TBS are both owned by AT&T, this is more like he is just switching networks.

That being said, why did his TBS show implode all of a sudden? He changed formats from 1 hour to 30 minutes last year. Now, he's ending the show. I realize COVID had something to do with a big money crunch. But, I thought he had a sizeable audience compared to the shows on NBC, ABC, and CBS?

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No clue about audience size but he’s got zero buzz for his show on TBS. I bet most didn’t realize he still had a show

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He's literally the only late night host I care about. Once Colbert dropped his fictional persona when he moved over to CBS, he wasn't funny anymore. And while Jimmy Fallon occasionally earns a solid chuckle, I grow tired of him hamming it up for the camera.

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And while Jimmy Fallon occasionally earns a solid chuckle, I grow tired of him hamming it up for the camera.

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I don’t even watch the normal late night shows. All the best bits make it to Twitter. John Oliver
Is the closest thing I watch to a traditional late night show

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That being said, why did his TBS show implode all of a sudden?

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TBS isn't the promotional machine that NBC is.

Fallon and Kimmel are pushed heavily on social media by their parent networks.

Conan doesn't have the topical big name guests. If it's a big star, they're usually not on Conan because they have the hot movie of the week. They're just there to hang out.

The only remaining respectable late night host left is Conan.

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I never really thought he was funny at Comedy Central, and I don't find him funny or even remotely interesting to watch now. I've never understood Colbert's popularity. And I don't give a crap about the politics, I'm just speaking about his delivery and show in general.

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As someone who swings conservative in my politics, I would normally be the kind of person who would have hated the Colbert Report. But at the time, his was a nice parody of some of the half-assedness of Fox News's late night line-up.

I mean, the joke eventually wore thin after about 5 seasons. Probably the reason why he dropped the act was because the joke wasn't funny anymore.

(Also, Bush's second term was an unmitigated disaster. Even conservatives can agree that the GOP was a clown show back then.)

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the nightly talk show is just kind of a dying format, networks keep scrambling to fix something people care increasingly less about

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Agreed. The formula is essentially unchanged from what 50 years ago? It's just a complete dinosaur in today's media and entertainment landscape. They're really just filler at this point. Something people watch because they're up and are bored, rather than anything people actually seek out to watch.

Other than Letterman's finale (which I tuned in just for auld lang syne), I haven't watched a late night network talk show since Ferguson left The Late Late Show.

Have I missed anything?

Conan is great, hate to hear that.

Conan is by far the best and funniest late night host. Those that don’t watch him regularly have really missed out IMO.

Without Letterman and Conan, late night will be pretty much dead.