{"id":357216,"date":"2025-08-19T16:20:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T16:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/357216\/"},"modified":"2025-08-19T16:20:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T16:20:13","slug":"conan-obrien-predicts-the-end-of-late-night-tv-but-says-stephen-colbert-will-survive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/357216\/","title":{"rendered":"Conan O’Brien Predicts the End of Late-Night TV, But Says Stephen Colbert Will Survive"},"content":{"rendered":"

Conan O’Brien<\/a> has never shied away from speaking hard truths about anything. While accepting his induction into the Television Academy Hall of Fame on Aug. 16, the veteran host delivered a sobering prediction about the future of late night talk shows<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lisa Kudrow, a longtime friend, presented O’Brien with his award at the 27th annual ceremony, held at the J.W. Marriott L.A. Live. “Yes, late night television as we have known it since around 1950 is going to disappear<\/strong>, but those voices are not going anywhere,” he said via The Hollywood Reporter<\/a>. “People like Stephen Colbert<\/a> are too talented and too essential to go away<\/strong>. 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.”<\/p>\n

O’Brien also touched on the changes to network television thanks to the rise of streaming platforms. “Things are changing fast. I don’t claim to know the future of our beloved medium<\/strong> but I know this, getting the privilege to play around with an hour of television has been the great joy of my professional career<\/strong>,” he said continued. “We’re having this event now in a time when there’s a lot of fear about the future of television, and rightfully so<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

\"Conan<\/p>\n

Conan O’Brien on Hot Ones on YouTube
\n Image via First we Feast<\/p>\n

“The life we’ve all known for almost 80 years is undergoing seismic change,” O’Brien added. “But 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<\/strong>. I think TV will always prevail if the stories are good, if the performances are honest and inspire, if the people making it are brave and of good will.”<\/p>\n

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Was Abruptly Axed By CBS<\/p>\n

O’Brien’s concerns follow the controversial cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,<\/a> which came after more than 30 years on the air. Colbert, who previously headlined The Colbert Report on Comedy Central, hosted the show since 2015<\/strong>, after David Letterman stepped down. Colbert addressed the axing of his show in a candid monolog on his show. “Next year will be our last season,” he said. “The network is ending The Late Show in May [2026].”<\/p>\n

“It’s not just the end of our show, but it’s the end of The Late Show on CBS<\/a><\/strong>,” Colbert explained. “I’m not being replaced. This is all just going away. And I do want to say that the folks at CBS have been great partners. I’m so grateful to the Tiffany Network for giving me this chair and this beautiful theater to call home. And of course, I’m grateful to you, the audience, you have joined us every night in here, out there, and around the world.” CBS cited “financial” decisions as a reason for the show’s axing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is set to air its final episode in 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Conan O’Brien has never shied away from speaking hard truths about anything. While accepting his induction into the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357217,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3937],"tags":[77,382,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-357216","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-tv","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}