Conan O’Brien offered Stephen Colbert some legitimately comforting words about his impending late night exit on Monday — but only after O’Brien jokingly told the CBS host that he warned this could happen.
To kick off his interview, O’Brien plopped down in his chair and coyly asked Colbert “How’s late night? What’s going on? I’ve been out of it for a little bit. Catch me up on what’s happening.” Naturally, Colbert laughed at that, and joked that he’d send O’Brien the “obituary” for the format.
The two joked about it all, but eventually, O’Brien offered more serious thoughts to the host.
“I, of course, adore you. I love you. I know you as a person and also as a comedic force,” O’Brien said. “And, like a lot of people, I’m very sad that this chapter is ending, but I also want to say that you’re going to do amazing things.”
“You’re going to have a lot of fun, and the connection you have — and this isn’t just you, it’s Mr. Kimmel, and Fallon, all these guys have, it’s very special — the connection you have with your audience, you’re taking with you,” he continued. “No one else owns that. That’s yours. That’s yours, for the rest of your life. That’s it!”
O’Brien’s encouragement earned massive cheers from the crowd as he repeated that Colbert is a good man. That said, his earnestness came only after O’Brien jokingly gave Colbert an “I told you so.” Before things truly got going, O’Brien recalled taking Colbert and his fellow late night hosts to dinner around the time that O’Brien himself left the format.
“I said, ‘Take care of late night. If you take care of late night, late night will take care of you,’ remember?” O’Brien recalled, putting on a fake old man voice. “I said, ‘Don’t do anything to ruffle any feathers.’ Remember? I said that?”
“I said, ‘And whatever you do, don’t speak truth to power!’ I said, ‘Cowardice is the way!’” he added.
You can watch O’Brien’s full appearance on “The Late Show” in the video above.
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