Conan O’Brien predicts late-night TV will ‘disappear’ and that’s a damn good thing

Former television host Conan O’Brien sees the writing on the wall for late-night TV, but he offered a different prediction for Stephen Colbert.

The former host of the more-than-decade-long TBS talk show “Conan” spoke about the future of the late-night talk show genre during remarks as he was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame on Saturday.

“This is the honor of a lifetime. It means everything to me. I’m stunned to be in this company. I don’t think I deserve it, but I’ll take it. And my grandfather always said, take what you can and ask for more. And I’m going to do that tonight,” O’Brien, who hosted “Late Night” and “Tonight Show” on NBC from 1993 to 2010, said as he accepted the award.

The 2025 Television Academy Hall of Fame inductees have changed television forever—and we’re proud to celebrate their legacy this August during the #Televerse Festival.

Viola Davis
Don Mischer
Ryan Murphy
Conan O’Brien
Mike Post
Henry Winkler#TelevisionAcademy pic.twitter.com/xyVuAJCBwf

— Television Academy (@TelevisionAcad) June 10, 2025

“You know, people say that television is dying, but I want to ask you — if our industry really was in trouble, would we be gathered right now for our greatest night in a downtown Los Angeles Marriott? On a weekend? In August? No!” O’Brien joked before addressing the current state of late-night shows.

“Things are changing fast. I don’t claim to know the future of our beloved medium, but I know this, getting the privilege to play around with an hour of television has been the great joy of my professional career,” he said.

“We’re having this event now in a time when there’s a lot of fear about the future of television, and rightfully so. The life we’ve all known for almost 80 years is undergoing seismic change. But — this might just be my nature — I choose not to mourn what is lost, because I think in the most essential way what we have is not changing at all. Streaming changes the pipeline, but the connection, the talent, the ideas that come into our homes, I think it’s as potent as ever, and we have proof here tonight,” he continued.

“Yes, late-night television as we have known it since around 1950 is going to disappear, but those voices are not going anywhere,” he said as he touted Colbert, who has hosted “The Late Show” on CBS since 2015 after taking over from former host David Letterman.

“People like Stephen Colbert are too talented and too essential to go away. It’s not going to happen, he’s not going anywhere. Stephen is going to evolve and shine brighter than ever in a new format that he controls completely,” O’Brien insisted, in a reference to the cancellation of the show.

“Technology can do whatever they want. It can make television a pill. It can make television shows a high-protein, chewable, vanilla-flavored capsule with added fiber. It still won’t matter, if the stories are good, if the performances are honest and inspired, if the people making it are brave and of goodwill,” he said.

While O’Brien may have leveled the praise on Colbert, social media users seemed to disagree.

There’s nothing at all essential about Colbert. His hate seethes through his teeth with every “joke” and it renders him unwatchable.

— cdub (@willic01) August 18, 2025

There is nothing essential about Colbert. He’s indistinguishable from the countless other mouthpieces for the Democrat Party and corporate America.

— AdamInHTownTX (@AdamInHTownTX) August 19, 2025

I love Conan, but he’s wrong about Colbert.

Colbert did have talent. But he pissed it away so he could rage against Trump on a nightly basis. I don’t see him coming back from this.

— Jack Bauer after dark (@JackBauerAD) August 19, 2025

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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.

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