Conan O’Brien is back on the air, but this time he’s on cable. The funnyman signed an unexpected deal with TBS and is expected to be on the cable station later this fall. The move is surprising as the general expectation was that he would go to network giant FOX.
Although the move made news almost everywhere, it did not make it onto David Letterman’s show and neither was it mentioned on “The Tonight Show” which was Conan’s former home. The reasons for this are unclear but it widely considered to be a gag order by upper management. Jay Leno did talk about it later though, when he was interviewed by Access Hollywood.
Leno said that he knew Conan would always land on his feet and that the time slot he would be on would make things fun for everyone as they would all (Leno, Letterman, O’Brien) be competing against each other. He also expressed his confidence in Conan’s ability to keep audiences entertained.
TBS seems to be pulling out all the stops to make sure that the show is a success. It is rumored that George Lopez was told to either move into a new time slot to make way for Conan or to get out of the company altogether. TBS has denied that such a threat was ever made and that both parties support each other shows. Whatever happened, the end result is that Conan will take over the 11 PM slot while Lopez slides down to the Midnight slot.