Henry Kissinger’s Son Runs Conan O’Brien’s Production Company

Henry Kissinger’s death at the age of 100 sparked a lot of outrage late this year as people shouted accusations of war crimes and boggled over his unlikely reputation as a Hollywood ladies’ man. But in certain buzzy corners of the internet, the nugget generating the most conversation is the revelation that David Kissinger, Henry’s son, is the long-time president of Conan O’Brien’s production company, Conaco. 

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While that fact might inspire a “Woah!” reaction, the news isn’t news at all — Kissinger has run Conan’s shop since 2005. You don’t get much more Nepo Baby than David Kissinger, who held a variety of high-profile media jobs before hooking up with Team Coco. In his early days, he was a staff reporter for Variety while also contributing They Might Be Giants reviews to Rolling Stone. 

He moved into TV producing and, at least on paper, David has a pretty impressive track record. As a bigwig at NBCUniversal, he was responsible for the first wave of Law & Order spinoffs and “oversaw development” on the American version of The Office, Monk, House, and a Battlestar Galactica reboot.

His nearly 20-year run at Conaco, however, is much less impressive. Other than the least successful versions of O’Brien’s late-night shows (his brief Tonight Show and TBS runs), Conaco’s highest profile production is probably … Andy Barker, P.I. starring Conan sidekick Andy Richter? That show got the green light for six episodes, but NBC canceled it after only four saw the light of day. There was Eagleheart, Chris Elliott’s Adult Swim show that flew under the radar for a few years. A handful of other projects lasted a single season, mostly at odd hours on TBS.

While Reddit has seen “Today I Learned…” posts about Kissinger and Conan going back to at least 2012, Henry’s death and Conan’s recent meet-up with President Biden (in which the leader of the free world told the comic “I wish I had your hair”) has fired up the r/conan subreddit.

“Has this... ever been brought up on any of his shows before?!” asked u/MulciberTenebras.

“Conan O’Brien Needs an Org Chart,” wrote u/DeliciousMoments.

Conan’s politics were batted around like a tennis ball, with Redditors noting that he was a Congressional intern for two Democrats and has been pretty consistent with his left-leaning views. In other words, “your basic progressive Masshole.” That inspired a long debate about whether David should be held accountable for the sins of the father. 

While most agreed each man should be judged on his own merits, u/Mr-Korv pointed out that the parent and son at least have one connection: “Both have had to oversee a lot of bombing.”