A chat between TBS late-night host Conan O’Brien and his former boss-turned-nemesis Jeff Zucker, now of CNN, fueled conversation inside New York City’s midtown restaurant Tao where CNN held an upfront session.
Despite being under the same corporate umbrella for the past two and a half years, O’Brien and Zucker have kept their distance, with O’Brien still openly bitter about the mishandling of his final year at NBC. The long-time Late Night host was famously and unceremoniously dumped from The Tonight Show in early 2010 after only months in the chair.
But it was O’Brien, whose TBS series got a critical boost from a recent taping in Cuba, who quietly made the approach. The men chatted briefly and cordially by the door, as members of O’Brien’s team, led by longtime producer Jeff Ross, watched from afar. A low-key O’Brien returned minutes later with a “life’s too short” shrug.
