Conan O'Brien to end his late-night talk show after 11 years

The American host and comedian will return to HBO Max 'in the near future', but not in a talk-show format

Conan O'Brien's final episode of 'Conan' will air on June 24. Reuters

Late-night talk show host Conan O'Brien will host his long-running nightly TBS Conan talk show for the last time on June 24, WarnerMedia said on Monday, ahead of his shift to a new show on HBO Max.

The final weeks of the TBS show will feature a line-up of special guests, culminating in an extended hour-long finale recapping his 11-year run.

"The plan is to re-emerge on HBO Max sometime in the near future with I think what will be my fourth iteration of a programme," O'Brien said at the start of Conan on Monday.

He added that "for 11 years, the people at Turner have been absolutely lovely to me," and that he hopes to take a "fun look back" at his time on TBS in the show's final weeks.

“Some of you are wondering why am I doing this? Why end things here at TBS?” O'Brien said. “And I’ll tell you: because a very old Buddhist monk once told me that to pick something up, you must first put something down.

“I’m very proud of what we’ve accomplished here,” he continued. “And so what I’d like is I’d like these last couple of weeks to be a fond look back at all the absurd madness that my team and I have concocted. Best of all, I just want to point out, there will be shockingly few, if any, references to Donald Trump because that’s always been my favourite kind of comedy.”

WarnerMedia said O'Brien's HBO Max show would move away from a traditional talk-show format.

Known for his clever comedy, often self-deprecating and awkward, O'Brien is the current longest serving nightly late-night talk show host in the United States, having started his career in 1993 when NBC tapped him to take over from David Letterman as host of the Late Night franchise. After an acrimonious departure from the NBC show, O'Brien launched Conan with TBS and has fronted more than 1,400 episodes of the show.

He has won four Emmy Awards and six Writers Guild Awards.

Prior to joining the late-night hosting ranks, O'Brien had been hired as a member of the writing team for Saturday Night Live and was also a writer and producer for two seasons on the animated show The Simpsons.