Conan O’Brien Returns to ‘The Tonight Show’ for the First Time Since He Was Fired

Conan O’Brien returned to The Tonight Show on Tuesday night, his first time back on the show since his unceremonious dismissal over 14 years ago.

O’Brien logged an infamously brief tenure on NBC’s benchmark late-night program, which he inherited from Jay Leno; the former Simpsons writer hosted the variety show from June 2009 until January 2010. Leno returned after NBC asked him back amidst slipping ratings. Jimmy Fallon succeeded Leno in 2014 and has remained in the position ever since.

Returning to 30 Rock, where The Tonight Show is filmed, was an odd experience for O’Brien. As he explained to Fallon, he spent much of his career in the compound. Before his brief stint on The Tonight Show, O’Brien hosted Late Night with Conan O’Brien from 1993 until 2009.

“It’s weird to come back,” O’Brien admitted to Fallon. “I haven’t been in this building for such a long time, and I haven’t been on this floor in forever.”

O’Brien continued: “I was here for 16 years doing the Late Night show, right across the hall…all these memories came flooding back to me.”

O’Brien’s career has arguably taken a more interesting and diverse turn since his dismissal from The Tonight Show, but he was forthright with Fallon about how peculiar it felt for the building to be occupied by other creatives.

“The first thing that will hit you—and it will hit you, too, because one day you’ll have this show as long as you want it,” O’Brien said pointedly, “but when you’re 98, you’ll move on and someone else will be in this studio. When someone else is in your studio, it feels weird.”

The veteran comedian then revealed that Kelly Clarkson is the talk show host who usurped his studio.

“I love Kelly Clarkson. Who doesn’t love Kelly Clarkson?” O’Brien asked. “But still I felt like, ‘It’s not right! Blasphemy! They should’ve burned it to the ground,'” he joked.

O’Brien is doing press rounds for his new series of Max specials, Conan O’Brien Must Go. The four installments follow O’Brien across the globe to locations such as Norway, where he surprises fans by showing up on their doorstep unannounced.

Conan O’Brien Must Go premieres April 19 on Max. You can check out O’Brien’s return to The Tonight Show below.