The late night game is not what it was when Conan O’Brien was at the peak of his powers, with hosts like Jimmy Fallon and James Corden aiming more for virality than actual comedy. As such, it makes sense that O’Brien would pivot away from the traditional format with Conan, his little-seen TBS late night show. In May, we reported that the show was downsizing to 30-minute episodes, and now Variety reports that the cuts will serve to excise musical acts from the show.
This is a bummer, sure, as killer acts like Angel Olsen, Future Islands, and Ty Segall have stormed the show’s stage, but it will allow Conan to focus more on what it does best, which is comedy segments like “Clueless Gamer” and his Conan Without Borders series of specials.
Upon the announcement of the time cut in May, O’Brien said the show would likely only have a single celebrity guest going forward. He added, “This is going to be me doing comedy as you’ve seen me doing and an interview, probably, with a celebrity every night instead of two or three,” he said. “Everything else beyond that we’re going to find it by doing it.”
Conan will implement the new format in January of 2019. Below, revisit Mac DeMarco‘s performance from last summer, when Nathan Fielder of all people popped up as a member of the jizz jazzer’s backing band.