Conan O'Brien on 60 Minutes in 2010

Conan O'Brien has announced he will end his TBS series, "Conan," in June 2021, signaling an end to nearly 30 years of late-night television. In 2010, O'Brien appeared on 60 Minutes and spoke with Steve Kroft about his very public breakup with NBC after a short tenure as host of "The Tonight Show."

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60 Minutes, the most successful American television broadcast in history, began its 52nd season in September. Offering hard-hitting investigative reports, interviews, feature segments and profiles of people in the news, the broadcast began in 1968 is still a hit in 2020. 60 Minutes makes Nielsen’s weekly Top 10 nearly every week and was the #1 weekly television broadcast three times last season.

The program still averages more than 10 million viewers, more than double the audience of its nearest network news magazine competitor. The average audience for a 60 Minutes broadcast is 150% higher than those of the network morning news programs; the audience dwarfs the number of viewers drawn by the most popular cable news programs.

60 Minutes has won every major broadcast award. Its 25 Peabody and 150 Emmy awards are the most won by any single news program. It has also won 20 duPont-Columbia University journalism awards. Other distinguished journalism honors won multiple times include the George Polk, RTDNA Edward R. Murrow, Investigative Reporters and Editors, RFK Journalism, Sigma Delta Chi and Gerald Loeb awards.

60 Minutes premiered on CBS September 24, 1968. Bill Owens is the program’s executive producer. The correspondents and contributors of 60 Minutes are Sharyn Alfonsi, Anderson Cooper, John Dickerson, Norah O’Donnell, Scott Pelley, Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker and L. Jon Wertheim.

[alexfever]

I want to make sure that people remember this. Right after being fired from The tonight show, Conan kept paying his employees OUT OF POCKET regardless of having a show or not.When you see people like Andy, Sona, Jordan and others stick around for ages, some moving from the east to the west coast to follow him, it shows what kind of man Conan is.

[itscarlosreally]

And 11 years later, he's wrapping up his latest show.

But this time, on his own terms.

[IchrnEt]

I think this was a huge blessing in disguise for Conan. He was unfairly pushed out of a format that people are losing interest in. This gave him a head start on developing an online presence where he is currently #1.

[rafamadrigal]

Crazy because he's light years funnier than all the popular late night shows

[sisigpapi]

I'll go to war for Conan O'Brien, best talk show host of my generation

[rebeccaellsbury]

The more you watch of Conan the more you’ll realize how many light years ahead he is of any other late night host

[teachthechildren]

I’ve never felt so bad for a rich and famous person. Conan makes people so happy. It’s terrible that they humiliated him like that and made him depressed.

[Benji-Lindz]

My gosh this video aged well, especially with Conan now moving to HBO Max soon. Conan moved to TBS, created his own incredibly successful podcast, and is now moving to streaming. He has left all other nighttime show hosts in the dust. Conan is the king of modern late night.

[thecpt]

him leaving the NBC was the best decision he ever made, he now has exceeded what he could've become staying with NBC.

[citisoccer]

Even after everything, he still stopped short of throwing salt on Leno. Conan is 100% class.

[naomigary]

the fact that people prefer literally any other talk show host over conan is unbelievable to me

[rv]

"I'm laughing cause crying would be sad" Watching this today and seeing how much fun Conan is having now with Sona and Matt on his podcast in his new studio.. I'm realizing how important it is to be conscious of how broken you're feeling at a significant low point in your life, asking yourself what are you going to do about it, doing the thing you've decided to do, being able to adapt, and putting in the work to make it out to the other side of it all, giving yourself an outlet, with support of your friends and family...and being able to laugh at some of it too. Watching this truly is inspirational. Will always be rooting for Conan!

[princesssadieloo]

I hate to think of Conan depressed, such a stand out guy with a heart of gold.

[omarmohsen]

Conan is the most solid talkshow host out there

[kenllacer]

Behind every Conan, there's a Schlansky.

[wes_tank]

"I'm laughing because crying would be sad" (beat) Tick tick tick tick tick

[Derkman]

I actually became a huge fan of Conan from watching his TBS show! Such a genuine dude, really happy that he had a 10 year run with TBS and I’m really looking forward to his HBO max show.

[mokhdomshah]

"I'm laughing cause crying would be sad"- greatest quote

[Trunojo]

They should do a follow up interview. How after 10 years he would be looked at as the winner of that situation.

[pablojuan]

Wish there were more men like Conan. A honorable man in a dishonorable industry.