Conan O’Brien sounds the alarm about late night, while praising Stephen Colbert

Stephen Colbert and Conan O'Brien are pictured on the Late Show in 2019. Scott Kowalchyk/CBS via Getty Images via CNN Newsource

While receiving a TV Academy Hall of Fame award, Conan O’Brien offered some thoughts about the state of late-night television.

The former late-night host talked to those gathered over the weekend in Los Angeles for the event, where O’Brien noted that there is currently “a lot of fear about the future of television, and rightfully so.”

“The life we’ve all known for almost 80 years is undergoing seismic change,” O’Brien said.

His remarks come after the recent announcement that CBS would be ending “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” in May 2026.

While CBS cited financial reasons for the cancellation, there have been questions about the timing of the announcement, which came just before federal regulators approved a sale of Paramount, the parent company of CBS.

During the ceremony, O’Brien said he had decided “not to mourn what is lost, because I think in the most essential way, what we have is not changing at all.”

“Streaming changes the pipeline, but the connection, the talent, the ideas that come into our homes… I think it’s the focus,” he said. “We have proof here tonight.”

O’Brien, who was being honored along with Viola Davis, Don Mischer, Ryan Murphy, Mike Post and Henry Winkler, said Colbert “is going to evolve and shine brighter than ever in a new format that he controls completely.”

“Technology can do whatever they want. It can make television a pill. It can make television shows a high-protein, chewable, vanilla-flavored capsule with added fiber,” O’Brien said. “It still won’t matter, if the stories are good, if the performances are honest and inspired, if the people making it are brave and of goodwill.”

By Lisa Respers France, CNN