Conan O'Brien returns

The former late-night host will travel the world for HBO Max. PLUS: Trailers for ‘Mission: Impossible,’ ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ and ‘The Creator,’ and Schwarzenegger talks ‘Terminator’ future.

Conan O’Brien in the promo for Conan O’Brien Must Go. / HBO Max

Welp, a cycle of colds has hit our household. I’d blame our daughter for this one, but it’s on both her and me at this point. It’s thankfully not Covid (I’ve tested), but being a bit down has put a crimp on the energy and time needed to watch new shows and write about them here. (I take no responsibility for any typos in this edition.)

Don’t worry, though, there’s still a ton in this edition of Popculturology. Excellent new movie trailers for Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One, Killers of the Flower Moon and The Creator.

We’ve caught up on Ted Lasso, and — WOW — has that show gotten bad. It wasn’t always bad, right? Are they trying to make it bad? The show seems to think it’s earned moments of emotional payoff that are actually empty.

And most importantly, Conan O’Brien is returning to our TVs with a new travel show.

It’s been a little over a month since I relaunched Popculturology, refocusing it and adding new highlights like Feature Presentation and Bonus Features, I added the option to become a supporting subscriber.

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Deep SNL Thoughts: Looking back on a strike-shortened season

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• Feature Presentation: ‘My fans around the globe never asked me to visit them, so I did’

• Bonus Feature: Jimmy Fallon’s Bluesky debut doesn’t go so well

• The News: Arnold Schwarzenegger on his Terminator future, release dates for Loki and Echo

• Trailer Watch: Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One, Killers of the Flower Moon, The Creator, Haunted Mansion, Futurama

• What to Watch: Monsters

• Odds and Ends: ‘The last adventure’ for Indiana Jones

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Conan O’Brien in the promo video for Conan O’Brien Must Go. / HBO Max

‘My fans around the globe never asked me to visit them, so I did’

It’s been almost two years since Conan O’Brien ended Conan. The retirement of his TBS show officially wrapped up a late-night TV career that began in 1993 with Late Night. Besides the period between the end of O’Brien’s tenure as host of The Tonight Show and the launch of Conan, he’s never been away from TV for as long as he’s currently been.

That absence ends soon. Or, as soon as the writers’ strike ends and O’Brien can get back to work.

HBO Max announced this week that Conan O’Brien Must Go will send O’Brien back onto the road as he visits people he’s talked with while recording his podcast, Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend.

“My fans around the globe never asked me to visit them, so I did,” O’Brien said in a statement released by HBO Max.