On Feb. 20, Conan O’Brien will bid farewell to the seat he has occupied since 1993 as the host of NBC's “Late Night with Conan O’Brien.”
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O'Brien is moving to Los Angeles to prepare for his May takeover of Leno’s spot as the host of "The Tonight Show." He told Billy Bush for Access Hollywood and “The Billy Bush Show,” that he leaves Manhattan's 30 Rock building with mixed emotions.
“This is where they invented television,” O'Brien told Bush. “This is a temple to broadcasting and I leave this place with a heavy heart. It’s been an amazing home to me. I’ve been doing it for 16 seasons and it’s time to change. I think Eric Clapton said, ‘Change or die!’ You’ve gotta move, you’ve gotta evolve, you’ve gotta change. And I think the L.A. chapter will be fascinating because man, am I a fish out of water in Los Angeles and man, that could make some good television.”
O'Brien will take over Leno’s “Tonight Show” seat in a new set on the Universal lot in Universal City, Calif. And the ginger-haired funnyman told Bush that he’s made some headway toward settling in to his new digs.
“We’re really excited, we have an amazing set up on the Universal lot and we actually kicked the ‘Desperate Housewives’ out of their studio,” he said with a laugh. “We’ve since made up. And that was fun, let me tell you. But now we’re all friends. We lunch together almost every day.”
Ahead of his permanent move, O'Brien will leave New York City following his last “Late Night” broadcast to help set his two children up in school.
Of his children, he jokes, “I’ve wanted to enroll them both in a military academy, I think it would be good for them… Wear little epaulets… We’re gonna make that adjustment.”
And as far as recruiting viewers, O'Brien already has a plan. “I’m actually gonna come out pretty soon after this show ends; in about a week and a half to two weeks I’ll be out there, so look for me, walking along the Sunset Strip,” he said. “I’m going to be asking people to watch the show… one by one.”