‘Conan O’Brien Must Go’ Trailer: Conan Returns in New Iteration of His Classic Travel Specials
Three years ago, when Conan O’Brien retired from late-night, it was a very different world. Max was known as HBO Max. TBS was still releasing original series. David Zaslav had just been announced as the CEO of what would become Warner Bros. Discovery. Change was in the air, and now many, many changes have happened.
But Conan remains a constant. Before “Conan” (the late-night series on TBS) welcomed its last guests, its host had already launched a wildly successful podcast, “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend.” He soon sold his booming digital media business to SiriusXM for $150 million, produced stand-up specials (“Chris Redd: Why Am I Like This?” and “Gary Gulman: Born on Third Base”) and podcast series (from Rob Lowe and Andy Richter), and acted in everything from “Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain” and “Murderville” to “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” and “Marcel the Shell With Shoes On.”
Conan O’Brien hasn’t gone anywhere. His pop culture footprint remains as firm and deep as his lofty stature (literally and figuratively) would suggest. And yet it’s still with great excitement — and a little bit of relief — that we can now see O’Brien hosting again, with our own eyes, in his official return to television (or, at least, a TV series on a streaming network). On Tuesday, Max released the first trailer for “Conan O’Brien Must Go,” which has been given an April 18 release date. All four episodes will be released at once.
Originally developed as a weekly variety special, “Conan O’Brien Must Go” has instead taken the shape of his beloved, long-running travel segments. O’Brien first introduced the idea on “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,” when he would do remote broadcasts outside the studio. He played “Old Timey Baseball,” took a trip to Ireland, and even visited Finland, the latter of which was extended into an hourlong special. O’Brien revived the popular format on “Conan” when he became the first American TV personality to visit Cuba in more than 50 years. Housed under the title “Conan Without Borders,” fans came to love his journeys abroad with celebrities like Sam Richardson and Steven Yeun, as well as show producer Jordan Schlansky (who fans will be excited to see in the trailer for “Conan O’Brien Must Go,” sharing yet another prickly conversation with his boss).
O’Brien is returning to a very different TV landscape, where late-night shows are fighting to survive and networks are cutting back on programming left and right. But O’Brien hasn’t changed, nor should he. His audience is still out there. Now, they just have to log on to Max.
“Conan O’Brien Must Go” premieres Thursday, April 18 on Max. Watch the trailer below.
