Conan O'Brien returned to The Tonight Show for the first time since being unceremoniously fired as host 14 years ago, and understandably had a lot of memories to share. He also did not disappointment as a guest, sharing a slew of funny anecdotes — including one particularly amusing admission involving Kelly Clarkson.
O'Brien shared it after telling Jimmy Fallon that “It’s weird to come back.”
“I haven’t been in this building for such a long time, and I haven’t been on this floor in forever,” he continued. “I was here for 16 years doing the Late Night show before we went out to LA. And right across the hall, all these memories came flooding back to me.”
“The first thing that will hit you, and it will hit you too —” O'Brien warned Fallon. “You’ll have this show as long as you want it, but when you’re 98 you’ll move on and someone else will be in this studio,” O’Brien joked to audience laughter.
“When someone else is in your studio, it feels weird,” he added. “So I walked in and said, ‘Who’s in my old studio?' And they said, ‘Kelly Clarkson.' And I love Kelly Clarkson. Who doesn’t love Kelly Clarkson? But still I felt like, ‘It’s not right! Blasphemy! They should have burned it to the ground!'”
O'Brien's mock-outraged bit didn't stop there. “Then Kelly came out to say hi and I said ‘Don't talk to me! You make me sick!'” As Fallon and the audience ate this up, O'Brien added, “I did, I feel terrible, Kelly, I really do.”
O'Brien was in his usual element as a perennial favorite late-night show guest, and seemed very at ease given the emotions involved. Conan O'Brien hosted Late Night with Conan O'Brien for 16 years from 1993 to 2009 before finally being made host of The Tonight Show — only to have it harshly stripped from him merely seven months later, with Jay Leno un-retiring from the position and reclaiming the coveted job.
O'Brien bounced back fine, going on to be the late-night face of cable outlet TBS for 11 seasons with his show Conan, before segueing to the popular podcast Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend.
Why did Conan O'Brien decide to return as a guest to The Tonight Show?
He must have felt the dust had settled long enough on his Tonight Show drama to finally return to the show, especially since Jay Leno has long since re-retired, with Jimmy Fallon taking over the reigns in 2014.
O'Brien even made it a point to praise Fallon for what he's done with the seminal late-night program, sincerely telling his comedic peer “I’m very happy for you.”
“I’ve had the honor of meeting every Tonight Show host going back to Steve Allen and I think what you’ve done with the show is beautiful and you made it your own,” said O'Brien. “You’ve done so much great quality work and I couldn’t be happier for you.”
Fallon returned the compliment, telling O'Brien “You raised the bar. You made me work hard.”
It was good feelings all around for O'Brien's big return. Plus it didn't hurt that he had a new travel show to promote — Conan O’Brien Must Go, a four-episode Max Original travel series that follows O'Brien as he makes new friends in Norway, Thailand, Argentina, and Ireland.
Whether he's faux-furious at Kelly Clarkson, or sharing a moment of sincerity with Jimmy Fallon, Conan O'Brien is always amusing as a late night guest, and his return to The Tonight Show proved no different.
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