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.”
READ MORE: Why Grey’s Anatomy star will never return to hit show
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.”
READ MORE: Deb Knight shares her beloved family beach getaway spot
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.
READ MORE: ‘Hanging on by a thread’: Battle awaiting Kate as she returns
“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.)
The new show follows O’Brien visiting friends he made on his previous series Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, where he will travel the world for engaging discussions with viewers.
For a daily dose of 9Honey, subscribe to our newsletter here.
As he was leaving O’Brien complimented Fallon. “I’m very happy for you; 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 and you made it your own, you’ve done so much great quality work and I couldn’t be happier for you,” he said.
Fallon said, “You raised the bar, you made me work hard.”