Conan O’Brien has a ‘weird’ return to ‘The Tonight Show’

Conan O’Brien visited “The Tonight Show” on Tuesday night, and said it’s been a long time since his days hosting NBC’s “Late Night” in the same building.

“It’s weird to come back,” O’Brien told host Jimmy Fallon. “I haven’t been in this building for such a long time, and I haven’t been on this floor in forever.”

O’Brien continued, “I was here for 16 years doing the ‘Late Night’ show before we went out to LA, and right across the hall, all these memories came flooding back to me.”

He tried to explain the “weird” feeling to Fallon, saying, “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.”

O’Brien left NBC in 2010 after Jay Leno returned as host of “The Tonight Show.” Prior to that, O’Brien hosted “Late Night” from 1993 to 2009. His TBS late-night show “Conan” ended in 2021 after 11 seasons.

He also mentioned Kelly Clarkson, who now hosts her own show in O’Brien’s old studio.

“I love Kelly Clarkson. Who doesn’t love Kelly Clarkson? But still I felt like, ‘It’s not right! Blasphemy! They should’ve burned it to the ground,’” O’Brien joked.

O’Brien has a new series, “Conan O’Brien Must Go,” which debuts on April 18 on Max. (CNN and Max are both part of Warner Bros. Discovery.)

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com