He’s back! Conan O’Brien returning to ‘Tonight Show’ for first time since 2010 exit

Welcome back, Coco.

Conan O’Brien will return to NBC’s “The Tonight Show” for the first time since exiting the host’s chair in 2010.

O’Brien, 60, will be a guest on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” on April 9 to promote his new travelogue series, “Conan O’Brien Must Go,” premiering April 18 on Max. He’ll be on Fallon’s show with Nicole Richie and musical guest Benson Boone.

O’Brien, who started on NBC hosting “Late Night” after David Letterman jumped to CBS, took over “The Tonight Show” from Jay Leno in June 2009 — while Leno pivoted to a prime-time show called “The Jay Leno Show.”

But O’Brien’s “Tonight Show” viewership dropped after Leno left, and Leno’s ratings in prime time also took a big hit.

NBC proposed starting Leno’s show at 11:35 p.m. and moving O’Brien’s “Tonight Show” to 12:05 a.m. — which O’Brien did not appreciate.

Then, in an unprecedented move that left O’Brien stunned and bitter — and Leno reviled by some — NBC moved Leno back to “The Tonight Show” in 2010 and replaced O’Brien, who went on to host the late-night show “Conan” on TBS from 2010-2021.

O’Brien hosted his last “Tonight Show” in January 2010, with Leno taking over two months later.

“I cannot express in words how much I enjoy hosting this program and what an enormous personal disappointment it is for me to consider losing it,” O’Brien said at the time.

“My staff and I have worked unbelievably hard and we are very proud of our contribution to the legacy of the ‘Tonight Show.’ But I cannot participate in what I honestly believe is its destruction. Some people will make the argument that with DVRs and the Internet a timeslot doesn’t matter. But with the ‘Tonight Show,’ I believe nothing could matter more.”

O’Brien did make a prior appearance of sorts on Fallon’s “Tonight Show” in 2018, when he appeared in a prerecorded skit that Fallon did with “Late Show” host Stephen Colbert.

Leno went on to host “The Tonight Show” through 2014, when he was succeeded by Fallon, 49.

He talked about the O’Brien kerfuffle on Bill Maher’s “Club Random” podcast in 2022 — and denied that he “deliberately sabotaged” O’Brien’s tenure on “The Tonight Show.”

“That doesn’t work,” Leno said. “It doesn’t work that way. You try and do the best you can and it didn’t work.”

In O’Brien’s new Max series, “Conan O’Brien Must Go,” he will visit new friends in Norway, Thailand, Argentina and Ireland that he met through his podcast, “Conan O’Brien Needs a Fan.”