Conan O'Brien marks 25 years as late night TV host

Irish American late-night king Conan O'Brien celebrates 25 years as the "Late Night" host on NBC.

Conan O’Brien is marking 25 years since his debut as the host of Late Night on NBC by announcing the release of a digital archive of every Late Night show.

Since his debut in 1993, O’Brien has hosted over 4,000 episodes of late night talk shows, “9 of which are quite good!” says the funnyman.

"It looks amazing,” said O’Brien in reference to his debut episode on the show, “The engineers even managed to give me the voice of an adult male.”

The new archive and website will be formally launched in January 2019.

When O’Brien first took over the Late Night desk on NBC in 1993, he had big shoes to fill. Veteran Dave Letterman had recently departed the show and moved into the earlier time slot of The Tonight Show.

At the time, 30-year-old O’Brien had spent most of his career behind the camera writing for both Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons. On the debut, O’Brien mimed hanging himself, setting the pace for his often subversive and self-deprecating approach to hosting duties.

It’s been a long and often bumpy road for O’Brien in late night TV. In 2009 he left Late Night behind and headed to Los Angeles to take over The Tonight Show. His tenure there, however, only lasted eight months, mainly due to politics.

In 2010, following a live comedy tour, O’Brien landed on his feet at TBS for his new show Conan, where he still hosts today.

Following David Letterman’s retirement in 2015, O’Brien is now the longest-serving late night host.

Naturally, with a career that spans two decades, O’Brien has hosted guests from all walks of life. Below, we chronicle some of our favorite Conan moments.