Conan O’Brien Finally Comments on Stephen Colbert’s Firing

Further proving that the current late-night comedy industry is more like a slumber party for middle aged white guys than an all-out “war,” following the announcement that CBS is cancelling The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, pretty much every other late-night host spoke out in Colbert’s defense, including Jon Stewart, the two Jimmys, Seth Meyers, John Oliver and even O.G. Late Show host David Letterman. 

But one late-night legend has been oddly silent on the matter. No, we’re not talking about Carson Daly.

Conan O’Brien refrained from immediately weighing in on this headline-grabbing development, prompting some fans to ask “What about the redhair?” after Stewart, Meyers, Fallon and Oliver all cameoed on The Late Show. Even the foul-mouthed doggy puppet that Conan made famous showed up to lend his support. 

This was all especially surprising considering that O’Brien seems to be fairly chummy with Colbert, and also happens to be the world’s leading expert on awkwardly exiting a late-night comedy institution due to the actions of a clumsy network.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Conan finally commented on the Colbert situation — albeit briefly — while being inducted into the Television Academy’s Hall of Fame this past weekend. 

“Things are changing fast. I don’t claim to know the future of our beloved medium but I know this, getting the privilege to play around with an hour of television has been the great joy of my professional career,” O’Brien stated. 

“We’re having this event now in a time when there’s a lot of fear about the future of television, and rightfully so,” the former Late Night host continued. “The life we’ve all known for almost 80 years is undergoing seismic change. But — this might just (be) my nature — I choose not to mourn what is lost, because I think in the most essential way what we have is not changing at all. Streaming changes the pipeline, but the connection, the talent, the ideas that come into our homes, I think it’s as potent as ever, and we have proof here tonight.”

O’Brien added that “late-night television as we have known it since around 1950 is going to disappear, but those voices are not going anywhere,” pointing out that “people like Stephen Colbert are too talented and too essential to go away. It’s not going to happen, he’s not going anywhere. Stephen is going to evolve and shine brighter than ever in a new format that he controls completely.”

It’s not shocking that Conan doesn’t see much of a future in late-night TV, considering that he exited the business and has seemingly been thriving in the podcast sector, a format he “controls completely.” But it’s a little surprising that he didn’t criticize CBS/Paramount at all, considering that so many people have theorized that Colbert’s firing had more to do with political appeasement than the waning relevancy of the late-night comedy biz. 

A far more raw reaction to the news came from an anonymous friend of Andy Richter’s, who simply responded “Trump… Mother fucker” in a text back in July. 

It sure would be nice to hear more from whoever that was.