At the 27th Television Academy Hall of Fame ceremony on August 16, 2025, Conan O'Brien—veteran late-night host and comedic trailblazer—delivered a speech that sent ripples through the entertainment industry. He declared, with characteristic candor, that late-night television as the world has known it since the mid-20th century "is going to disappear." It was a moment both sobering and oddly hopeful, capturing the uncertainty and resilience at the heart of an industry in flux.
O'Brien's remarks came just weeks after CBS announced it would end "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" in May 2026, marking the conclusion of a storied run that began with David Letterman and, since 2015, has been helmed by Colbert. The cancellation, as reported by several outlets including The Hollywood Reporter and NJ.com, was attributed by CBS executives to financial pressures and shifting consumer habits rather than any shortcoming on Colbert's part. "It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount," CBS stated, referencing the then-impending merger of Paramount (CBS's parent company) with Skydance, which federal regulators approved in late July 2025.
For O'Brien, who spent 28 years as a late-night host across NBC and TBS, the writing on the wall is clear but not cause for despair. "Yes, late-night television as we have known it since around 1950 is going to disappear, but those voices are not going anywhere," he told the audience at the J.W. Marriott L.A. Live. Lisa Kudrow, his longtime friend, presented him with the Hall of Fame award, underscoring the sense of generational change in the room.
O'Brien's message was as much a tribute to his peers as it was a meditation on change. "People like Stephen Colbert are too talented and too essential to go away. It’s not going to happen. He’s not going anywhere," O'Brien insisted, adding, "Stephen is going to evolve and shine brighter than ever in a new format that he controls completely." For O'Brien, the medium may change, but the creative spark remains. "Streaming changes the pipeline, but the connection, the talent, the ideas that come into our homes, I think it’s as potent as ever."
The end of Colbert's tenure on CBS is emblematic of broader upheaval in television. Colbert himself addressed the news candidly on air: "Next year will be our last season. The network is ending The Late Show in May [2026]. It’s not just the end of our show, but it’s the end of The Late Show on CBS. 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."
While CBS cited financial challenges as the main reason for the cancellation, the timing fueled speculation. The announcement came as Paramount was finalizing its multibillion-dollar merger with Skydance, and just after Colbert had publicly criticized Paramount for a $16 million settlement paid to President Donald Trump. Colbert didn’t mince words during a monologue: "As someone who has always been a proud employee of this network, I am offended and I don’t know if anything will ever repair my trust in this company. But just takin’ a stab at it, I’d say $16 million would help." He went on to call the settlement a "big fat bribe" and alluded to concerns that the new ownership might seek to appease Trump, a frequent target of Colbert's satire.
Trump, for his part, celebrated the end of Colbert’s show and suggested that other late-night hosts critical of him could soon face similar fates. Paramount, however, maintained that the decision was "purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night," pointing to the migration of viewers to streaming platforms like Netflix and Apple TV+.
O'Brien, who has himself adapted to changing times with remarkable agility, is living proof that talent can outlast format. Since ending his late-night run, he has hosted the hit podcast "Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend," which was acquired by SiriusXM in a $150 million deal in 2022. That podcast even spawned an Emmy-winning travel show, "Conan O’Brien Must Go," on HBO Max, where O'Brien visits fans around the world—a clever evolution of his earlier "Conan Without Borders" segments.
During his Hall of Fame speech, O'Brien acknowledged the anxiety gripping the industry. "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," he said. But he also offered perspective: "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. 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."
O'Brien's remarks were peppered with his trademark wit. He joked, "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 have goodwill, then somewhere, two weird siblings huddled in their crowded living room just off Route 9 outside Boston are going to be moved." The Boston reference, a nod to his own upbringing in Brookline, Massachusetts, underscored the personal stakes of the moment.
As the entertainment world grapples with the end of a late-night era, O'Brien's optimism seems well-founded. After all, the creative voices that defined the format for decades—Colbert, O'Brien, and others—are already finding new ways to connect with audiences. O'Brien himself was honored alongside luminaries like Viola Davis, Don Mischer, Ryan Murphy, Mike Post, and Henry Winkler at the Hall of Fame event, a testament to the enduring power of storytelling in any medium.
Looking ahead, the question isn't whether late-night personalities will endure, but rather what shape their work will take in a media landscape defined by streaming, podcasts, and whatever comes next. As O'Brien put it, "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." For now, the curtain may be falling on one era, but the show—by all appearances—will go on.
