Conan O’Brien Says a YouTube Show Made Him Realize Late-Night TV Was in Trouble
The shift in how audiences consume entertainment has been slow enough to debate but fast enough to catch legacy media off guard. Conan O’Brien just put a dollar figure on the gap — and it’s smaller than most people’s monthly rent.
In a March 2026 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, O’Brien described the specific moment he understood that the late-night television format was losing its grip. It happened when he sat down on Hot Ones in 2024, the YouTube interview series where celebrities answer questions while eating increasingly spicy chicken wings. His episode has received more than 15 million views.
“That was the moment the scales fell from my eyes,” O’Brien told THR. “If a guy can do World Series numbers with overhead that looked, to me, to be about $600, and you have every big star lining up to do his show or Chicken Shop Date … that’s when I profoundly understood that late night shows are in trouble.”
A YouTube show with production costs O’Brien estimated at $600 pulling viewership he equated with World Series numbers. A-list celebrities lining up to appear. That math reshapes assumptions about where audiences gather and what production value means to them.
O’Brien’s comments arrived alongside real structural changes. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is ending. Jimmy Kimmel Live! was temporarily suspended after comments made by host Jimmy Kimmel about the assassination of Charlie Kirk sparked backlash. Disney suspended the show after two major affiliate owners pulled the program from their stations. The show later returned following a brief hiatus.
“I’m of the mind that yes, these shows are going away and will become something else,” O’Brien said.
That phrase — “become something else” — is worth sitting with. O’Brien isn’t eulogizing the format. He’s describing a transformation already underway, one where the container changes even if the impulse behind it (interviews, comedy, cultural conversation) persists.
He drew a line, though. “But I don’t like when other malign forces intervene, because they’re trying to curry favor. That pisses me off,” O’Brien added.
O’Brien’s read on the situation isn’t new for him. According to Stephen Colbert, O’Brien had been nudging him toward the exit for a while.
“We were out, a few Emmys ago, and he kept saying, ‘I want you to know there’s a lot of fun to be had when this is over, so don’t feel like you need to stay.’ It almost hurt my feelings, but he was just being kind. He Dutch uncle’d me,” Colbert told THR.
O’Brien has personal experience with late-night’s volatility. He hosted Late Night with Conan O’Brien from 1993 to 2009, then briefly hosted The Tonight Show from 2009 to 2010 on NBC. He later hosted Conan on TBS until 2021. That arc — from network flagship to cable to stepping away entirely — mirrors the broader trajectory he’s now describing.
Rather than chasing another TV hosting slot after Conan ended, O’Brien moved into podcasting and streaming. He currently has a podcast and a series on Max. He’s also hosting the 2026 Academy Awards for the second consecutive year.
Production of this article included the use of AI. It was reviewed and edited by a team of content specialists.
