What's another 37 minutes between friends? That's how long into the broadcast 60 Minutes waited to air Steve Kroft's interview with Conan O'Brien, the first time the former Tonight Show host appeared on television since February 20th. And while most of the juicy details had already been previewed -- as it turns out, Conan would have handled this entire situation a bit differently than Jay Leno -- the interview still held some surprises. Namely, how the Great Late Night War of 2010 left the nominally unwavering Coco fairly damaged.
While you might have assumed that Conan would be laughing all the way to the bank -- with his $30 million payoff from NBC, plus the money he's getting from TBS, there won't be any need to hold a telethon for O'Brien in the near future -- most of the interview illustrated how torn up the ouster from NBC left him. As his wife Liza told Kroft: "This was just really, really hard for him. It -- it was watching someone's heart get broken."
And he's still not over it. Numerous times Conan tried to take the highroad with his former employers, only to be confronted by the harsh reality of their statements. After saying he wished Jeff Zucker -- a friend since college who still hasn't given him a call -- "nothing but the best," Kroft read the NBC CEO's remark that the "viewers voted" and decided against Conan as The Tonight Show host. Ouch. Conan's response -- "Can I take back what I just said?" -- was meek, but under the circumstances, can you blame him?
All of which makes you wonder: Will Conan be over his broken heart by the time the TBS show starts up in November? Because the last thing anyone wants to see is a guy still crying about the girl who dumped him while he's with someone new. Since the entire segment ended with a clip of Coco on tour, singing a personalized version of "I Will Survive" -- sample lyric: "They threw me out / It happened fast / They said please don't let the door hit your freckled, Irish ass / I hung around the house eating frosting from a jar / I got really into Gossip Girl and sleeping in my car / Yes, I'll survive" -- here's hoping.
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