Breaking down the five phases of Conan's late-night career

https://www.theringer.com/tv/2021/6/24/22547171/conan-obrien-tbs-farewell-late-night

Phase 1 was Conan's 16 years on NBC's Late Night, according to Rob Harvilla. Phase 2 was The Tonight Show in 2009. Phase 3 was The Tonight Show in 2010, when everything went awry and he said goodbye on Feb. 20. Phase 4 was the one-hour TBS show from 2010 to 2018. And Phase 5 was the revamped half-hour TBS show that premiered in January 2019. "The best part of Conan’s TBS tenure is what he didn’t do, which is to say he didn’t lean too hard into the Trump era in either direction: He was not a tousler and/or enabler like Jimmy Fallon or Saturday Night Live, nor did he attempt to refashion himself as an eviscerator type like the ineffective and consistently out-satired CBS-era Colbert or the far more effective John Oliver or Samantha Bee," says Harvilla. "Conan’s TBS show stood still while every other late-night show broke into a wild and unsustainable sprint, and he nearly came out of the Trump era back on top by default."