Leslie Weiner/NBCEarly in Conan O’Brien’s career, David Letterman was a guest on his show.Two late-night hosts with something in common — they both lost the “Tonight” show to Jay Leno — will meet for a conversation on the air next week when Conan O’Brien visits David Letterman’s show.
Mr. Letterman’s “Late Show” announced Thursday that Mr. O’Brien will be the main guest next Thursday, May 17.
The appearance will be the first time in 13 years that Mr. O’Brien has sat down with Mr. Letterman — and the first time they will have talked (in public at least) about the course of events in 2010 that first cast Mr. O’Brien as Mr. Letterman’s direct competitor at 11:35 p.m. weeknights, and then brought Mr. Leno back after NBC’s decision to oust Mr. O’Brien from “Tonight.”
Of course, part of the reason that all transpired was NBC’s reaction to Mr. Letterman’s moving past Mr. O’Brien in the ratings when they appeared head to head.
But the history between the two late-night stars is overwhelmingly positive. Mr. O’Brien was originally Mr. Letterman’s successor to “Late Night” when that show was on NBC, and he has never made a secret of how much Mr. Letterman influenced his career.
Mr. O’Brien has frequently cited an early visit from Mr. Letterman to “Late Night” during the rocky period when he had just started on the show as a turning point in his eventual rise to success in late-night TV.
Mr. Letterman has been generous in his praise of Mr. O’Brien throughout his career and publicly took his side in the confrontation with NBC in 2010. He still makes regular jokes directed at Mr. Leno for taking the “Tonight” job back from Mr. O’Brien.
Most recently Mr. O’Brien, on “Conan,” his late-night show on TBS, has scaled back his own comments about that period in his life. But the topic may come up when he chats with Mr. Letterman.