NEW YORK — After months of build-up, Conan O'Brien finally returns to late night television Monday when his new TBS talk show premieres.
"It's now or never," O'Brien told Jim Kerr on New York's WAXQ this morning. "It's nice to be able to run your own show and make it as irritating as we want."
Back on television for the first time since his infamous Tonight Show exit in January, O'Brien joked that he thought his new deal was actually with PBS.
"This is terrible," he said. "I've prepared a very educational show about the Civil War. My new show is going to be narrated. It's going to be old people reading letters."
The first guest on Conan remains a mystery after being chosen through an online contest by fans, but those dropping by for the premiere include Seth Rogen, Lea Michele and Jack White. O'Brien said he wanted to avoid putting too much emphasis on his first show in order to keep the program "around for awhile."
"It's a marathon," he explained. "You want to make sure you have your ducks in a row for the first couple of months, so we just tried to make the first week a mix of people who are big stars, but also people we can have a lot of fun with."
Conan debuts on TBS at 11 p.m. ET.
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