I don't know how I missed this news, but Conan had its last hour-long show last night. The series returns in January in a half-hour format. Not sure how I feel about the news. It's been a while since I've watched a non-special episode of Conan (although of all late night shows, he'd be the only one I'd give a watch for a full hour), so maybe a half hour will be easier to digest. But it's the end of an era. He's doing the same show he's been doing for 25 years. Maybe not as edgy or comical, but for better or worse, it was the same.

It's also the end of an era, as he was the last man standing from before 2000. It's a bit sad to think of the current landscape and that the last and best of an era will no longer be doing the same show. On the flip side of that, maybe it was time to change. Conan O'Brien is getting older, the late night format, as anyone knew it before Fallon jumped into it, is dead. Hopefully Conan is getting into something new and exciting before he inevitably retires from the talk show game.

That's interesting and late night format doesn't feel what it was anymore indeed.
Late Night Conan was my fav. talk show host, it's the only show I ever watched in full at some point. Since a long time already, I'm only just watching youtube clips of shows.

Craig Ferguson was the last one in the main network game that did something different with the format. Once he and Letterman left, that was it for traditional late night. Everyone else is focused on short, digestable viral videos with celebs, and political humor. Maybe that old-style format should be dead. Maybe that's the first time I'm at an age where I say "It's not as good as it used to be!" but there's a reason why it's not that way any more.

Conan hasn't gotten nearly enough credit for doing his TBS show for the last eight years. He continues to try and do different things (the Conan Without Borders series; his on-location episodes from Comic-Con, New York, etc.) and he's still funny.

He won't ever be in the political comedy game, so I'm curious to see what a half-hour Conan show will be like.

Late night is made for the flipping channels era. Like a lot of network TV with young people either not having cable or just preferring to be on the internet at 11:30 the model seems dubious. They have done a decent job trying to be younger and hipper, if they took the same approach these networks are doing with procedurals right now they would have doubled down on old people audience who grew up on late night