Conan O’Brien is enjoying new creative freedom after leaving late-night television in 2021. Photo / Getty Images
Conan O’Brien is enjoying new creative freedom after leaving late-night television in 2021. Photo / Getty Images
Conan O’Brien is enjoying “all this freedom to be me in different ways” after leaving late-night television.
While also reflecting on the shock of losing his friends Rob Reiner and Michele Reiner after the pair were murdered in December, O’Brien, 62, opened up about the impact of stepping down fromhis TBS talk show Conan in June 2021 after 11 years on air – bringing to a close a late-night career that began in 1993 with Late Night with Conan O’Brien and later included The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien.
Speaking to David Remnick in an interview for The New Yorker, O’Brien discussed his evolving career, his return to hosting the Oscars and the deaths of Rob, 78, and Michele, 70, who were found stabbed to death in their California mansion before their son Nick Reiner was charged with the double homicide.
O’Brien, who hosts the podcast Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend and the travel series Conan O’Brien Must Go, reflected on his decision to leave nightly television by saying: “I left my late-night show four years ago. I’ve had a wonderful time.
“I think I reach more people now, either through the podcast or doing the travel show.
“I have all this freedom to be me in different ways, in different formats.
Conan O’Brien hosts a podcast and travel series and says he now reaches more people in diverse formats than his TV shows did. Photo / Getty Images
“There’s a lot of really beautiful opportunities, and I’ve been having a blast and getting to have types of interviews I never could have had in that old, ‘You’re up in the attic’ format.”
O’Brien also said: “I mean, this old format is going away, but they’re being replaced by a multitude of other ways to connect with people and be funny, and be satirical, and be probing, and let your talent run wild – that in some ways are more freeing.”
The broadcaster will host the Oscars on March 15 and discussing his preparations, he said: “I started writing a while ago. Ideas are like RAF pilots in 1940. You have to generate a lot of them.
“A lot of them fall by the wayside and then some endure.”
O’Brien added: “I can’t fake enjoyment. I need to find ways to make sure that I’m having a lot of fun. I need to prepare – I mean, I’m a big preparation person.
“I work with this brilliant team of writers who are just downstairs from where I’m doing this podcast, and they’re cranking away.”
Later in his interview, O’Brien also addressed the deaths of the Reiners, who were found dead at their home on December 14.
Their 32-year-old son has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder and entered a not guilty plea to the killings during a court arraignment on Monday, February 23.
O’Brien said he and his wife had grown increasingly close to the couple before their deaths.
He said: “I knew Rob and Michele, and then increasingly got closer and closer to them, and I was seeing them a lot. My wife and I were seeing them a lot, and they were so – they were just such lovely people.
“And to have that experience of saying good night to somebody and having them leave and then find out the next day that they’re gone... I think I was in shock for quite a while afterward.
“There’s no other word for it. It’s just very – it’s so awful. It’s just so awful.
“And I think about how Rob felt about things that are happening in the country, how involved he was, how much he put himself out there – and to have that voice go quiet in an instant is still hard for me to comprehend.”
