When it comes to talking about late night talk show hosts, Conan O’Brien is one of the best. Conan Christopher O’Brien is an American television host, comedian, writer, and producer. He is most famously known for hosting several late-night talk shows. Since 2010, he has been hosting the late-night show “Conan” on the channel TBS and that’s where he made most of his net worth from.
A Prestigious Background
Born in Brookline, Massachusetts, on April 18, 1963, O’Brien comes from a well-educated family. His father, Thomas Francis O’Brien, is a physician and works as a professor at the Harvard Medical School. His mother, Ruth O’Brien, was an attorney and retired in 1997. She was once a partner at Boston firm Ropes & Gray. As for his siblings, O’Brien has three brothers and two sisters, a big family. O’Brien himself graduated from Brookline High School as valedictorian in 1981. Later he pursued his degree in History and Literature at Harvard University and eventually graduated in 1985.
Starting out his Television Career
Once he graduated from Harvard, O’Brien moved to Los Angeles to join the staff of the HBO show “Not Necessarily the News”. In January 1988, he joined the “Saturday Night Live” (SNL) writing team and worked for three years with them. His exceptional work led him to receive an Emmy Award along with his fellow SNL writers for “Outstanding Writing in a Comedy or Variety Series” in 1989.
He made appearances as an extra in SNL sketches from time to time. Meanwhile, he worked on writing the television pilot for the show “Lookwell” along with Robert Smigel. Adam West starred in the show and when the show finally aired on NBC in 1991, it was not picked up by the network. O’Brien’s life took a tragic turn of events, following the failure of the “Lookwell” pilot and the breaking of his engagement, he decided to quit SNL in 1991.
Writer And Producer For The Simpsons
Just as every cloud has a silver lining, O’Brien subsequently was offered a job for writing the famous animated sitcom “The Simpsons”, a grand opportunity for his career. From 1991 to 1993, he worked as the writer and producer of “The Simpsons” where he created some of the most loved episodes of the series, including “Marge vs. the Monorail” and “Homer Goes to College.” At the same time, David Letterman, the host of the talk show “Late Night”, decided to leave the show and Lorne Michaels, the executive producer of the show, started on his hunt for a new host. And so, he reached out to O’Brien who expressed his wish for performing, and not just writing and producing. In April 1993, after a test audition, O’Brien was finalized as the new host for “Late Night”.
Late Night With Conan O’Brien
However, things were still rough when “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” was first aired on September 13th, 1993, it received a lot of criticism. Events were at their worst when O’Brien was threatened with a weekly contract and interns had to fill the empty seats in the audience. In 1994, David Letterman came to the show to make positive statements and inspire the team to keep going. The situations improved gradually when Conan started to connect with the audience, to the point that in 1996, O’Brien and the shoe’s writing team were nominated for an Emmy Award for “Best Writing in a Comedy or Variety Series” and eventually won it in 2007. The team also won the Writers Guild Award FOR “Best Writing in a Comedy/Variety Series” several times. The show grew in popularity and was attracting 2.5 million viewers on average. After O’Brien’s 15-year long performance, the show ended on 20th February 2009 with the episode ending with O’Brien destroying the set by using an axe.
The Tonight Show Conflict
Following its end, O’Brien pursued “The Tonight Show” on NBC that was previously hosted by Jay Leno. He worked there for merely seven months between 2009 to 2010 and got low ratings. Meanwhile, Jay Leno also earned low ratings from the new prime time slot. Hence, Leno returned to his late-night slot in 2010.
Conan O’Brien was paid $32.5 million after he left NBC with another $12 million paid by the network which went to O’Brien’s staff. After the conflict, O’Brien took a break from television and went on a 30-city live tour called, “The Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour” in 2010. On the same day when his tour began, he announced about the start of his new show “Conan” on the channel TBS, that he hosts even today. The show is reported to continue till 2022.
Apart from being a host, O’Brien founded a television company “Conaco” in 2001. He used the channel and worked as the executive producer for several shows including “Andy Barker, P.I.” (2007) and “Outlaw” (2010). He is also the owner of the production company “TeamCoco” that collaborated with Earwolf to release the weekly podcast “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” in 2018. The podcast was a hit and has won awards including the iHeartRadio Podcast Award for Best Comedy Podcast and Best Ad Read.
Personal Life
O’Brien got married to Elizabeth Ann “Liza” Powel in 2000. The couple has two children, a daughter names Neve and a son named Beckett. At the time they married, Liza worked as a senior copywriter at Foote, Cone & Belding. She also appeared on the show “Late Night With Conan O’Brien” in a skit involving the firm.
Conan O’Brien’s Net Worth 2021
As of 2021, it is estimated that O’Brien’s net worth stands at $85 million. The television host earns an annual salary of $12 million for the show “Conan” on TBS. in terms of real estate, while he was hosting “Late Night”, he along with his family, lived in a duplex apartment. As the family decided to move to LA, a fully furnished apartment for $30 million was listed by them.
The house was sold in July 2010 for $25 million. In 2008, Conan bought a home in LA’s Brentwood neighborhood for $10.75 million. The house was sold in June 2012 for $9.25 million. In 2011, Conan with his wife purchased a new mansion for $19.4 million nearby the Pacific Palisades. As for the assets, O’Brien has an amazing fleet of cars including Bugatti, Range Rover, Mercedes Benz, Rolls Royce, and Ford Taurus.
As his show is projected to continue until 2022, his net worth is bound to increase in the future. His consistent hard word and his quirky sense of humor have made Conan O’Brien set himself apart from others.
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