Conan O’Brien has had a very interesting year. 10 months ago the gangly human cartoon was fired from his dream job as host of the Tonight Show, famously ousted after just 7 months on the job. After securing an excellent severance package from NBC for himself as well as his staff, Conan embarked on a nationwide comedy tour entitled the “Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour”, which sold out almost immediately.
During the tour, Conan was courted heavily by Fox, Comedy Central and TBS to host a new late night talk show on their respective channels. Ultimately TBS won out, largely due to comedian George Lopez lobbying Conan to join him at the cable channel. “I said let’s take the party and make it bigger … everybody’s heard of ‘I’m with CoCo’ but now everybody can ‘Go LoCo’,” Lopez stated in April.
Even with the ups and downs of the last year, O’Brien has kept his head held high and stayed focused on the future, letting bygones be bygones with NBC. “I feel like I’ve come a long way in putting it behind me…I’m really proud of the work I did at that company for a long time,” O’Brien stated. With the start of his new show, entitled simply Conan, right around the corner, the Harvard graduate and former staff writer on The Simpsons as well as Saturday Night Live is ready to get back to work. “My goal is to seize this opportunity (and) make some interesting television. I do want to try new things.”
TBS has been heavily marketing the new show, building an entire website dedicated to Conan (www.teamcoco.com), flying an orange blimp around the country and placing billboards and advertisements in various publications. No one, however, seems to be looking forward to the start of the new show more than O’Brien himself. “Even just doing the test shows, I felt like a duck getting back in the water. I like being in front of audiences,” he stated. ”There’s nothing like getting your (butt) in gear. I’ve got a show to do.”
Positively Celebrity is rooting for Conan to succeed beyond anyone’s wildest expectations! Conan premieres Monday, November 8 on TBS. Check local listings for time.
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Thanks for an idea, you sparked at thought from a angle I hadn’t given thoguht to yet. Now lets see if I can do something with it.