‘Conan O’Brien Must Go’ International Travel Series Ordered by Max

Michael Schneider
·3 min read
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Conan O’Brien’s long-awaited move to HBO Max — well, make that now just “Max” — is finally happening. Max has officially ordered “Conan O’Brien Must Go,” a four-episode international travel series currently in production. Scroll down to watch a first look.

The series was set to be announced Wednesday at Warner Bros. Discovery’s upfront presentation. According to Max, the new show will follow O’Brien as he travels the globe visiting people he has met through his podcast “Conan O’Brien Needs a Fan” (in which he chats with listeners from around the globe). In a press release, O’Brien quipped, “My fans around the globe never asked me to visit them, so I did.”

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“Conan O’Brien Must Go” fulfills the promise first made when O’Brien announced in 2020 that his self-titled TBS late-night show “Conan” would end in June 2021. Part of the plan was for O’Brien to launch a weekly series for HBO Max, where he had signed a deal for a new weekly variety series to premiere the following year.

But 2022 came and went with no sign of a new O’Brien show. Or, for that matter, any new installments of his travel specials, “Conan Without Borders,” which had also aired on TBS.

In February 2022, on his “Conan Needs a Friend” podcast, O’Brien said development of the new show had been slow, but the idea was to focus on remotes. “When I’m with real people in real situations, that’s exactly the kind of stuff I’m thinking about and want to do,” he said.

When Variety last asked HBO/HBO Max CEO of content Casey Bloys in February about the status of O’Brien, he said conversations were ongoing with HBO programming exec VP Nina Rosenstein about a project.

That’s what came to be as “Conan O’Brien Must Go,” which will be exec produced by O’Brien and Jeff Ross, and come from O’Brien’s Conaco shingle.

Said Rosenstein: “Conan is a national treasure…at least that’s what he keeps telling me. It’s been an absolute dream to work with him, Jeff, and the whole Conaco team. They’re everything you’d hope for – insanely smart, ridiculously funny, and nicer than they’d probably want to admit.”

“Conan” ran for 11 years on TBS, the capper to his 28-year stint in late night. “Conan Without Borders” has visited 13 countries and has won an Emmy. Variety has confirmed that “Conan Without Borders” will not continue.

Since the end of “Conan,” O’Brien has focused on building his “Team Coco” media company, with a focus on a growing podcast empire. That includes “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” (with Conan O’Brien, Sona Movsesian and Matt Gourley), which has amassed more than 427 million downloads. Team Coco, which was acquired by SiriusXM in 2022, includes digital and branded content, live events, merchandise and other production. Its podcast stable also includes “May I Elaborate?” (with JB Smoove and Miles Grose), “Parks and Recollection” (with Rob Lowe and Alan Yang), “Scam Goddess” (with Laci Mosley), “Why Won’t You Date Me?” (with Nicole Byer), “The Three Questions” (with Andy Richter) and “Inside Conan” (with Mike Sweeney & Jessie Gaskell).

Here’s a first look at “Conan O’Brien Must Go”:

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