Conan O’Brien returned to The Tonight Show on Tuesday for the first time since he was disrespectfully fired in 2010. “Knock it off,” he told the studio audience, who greeted him with a standing ovation. “I know you meant well, but I had The Tonight Show for 10 minutes and you just ate into my time.”
Conan spent much of the interview reminiscing with current The Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon about his time on the show. “It’s weird to come back. I haven’t been in this building for such a long time, and I haven’t been on this floor in forever,” he admitted. “I was here for 16 years doing the Late Night show before we went out to L.A., and right across the hall… all these memories came flooding back to me. The first thing that will hit you — and it will hit you, too, because one day you’ll have this show as long as you want it, but when you’re 98, you’ll move on and someone else will be in this studio. When someone else is in your studio, it feels weird.”
Who is in Conan’s old studio now? Kelly Clarkson. “I love Kelly Clarkson. Who doesn’t love Kelly Clarkson?” he said. “But still I felt like, ‘It’s not right! Blasphemy! They should’ve burned it to the ground.’”
At the end of the lengthy interview, after sharing stories about Prince, Barack Obama, and Paul McCartney, Conan told Fallon that he’s “very happy” for him. “I’ve had the honor of meeting every Tonight Show host going back to Steve Allen. And I think what you’ve done with the show is beautiful,” he said. “You made it your own. You’ve done so much great, quality work. And I couldn’t be happier for you.”
You can watch both parts of Conan’s Tonight Show interview below.