By Rebecca Harper, Hulu | Saturday, June 6, 2009, 10:56 AM
Ever since NBC announced that Conan O'Brien would be taking over "The Tonight Show," the big question was whether Conan could attract the same numbers as former host Jay Leno. Determined by his performance so far, he'll do just fine -- even though official numbers from Nielsen won't be available for another week, preliminary numbers suggest he may have reached more than 9 million viewers on his first night, making it the strongest Monday "Tonight Show" in more than four years. And all the buzz about Conan's debut certainly helped the premiere: His audience was up 173 percent over his final "Late Night" episode. While it's too soon to tell what kind of crowd he'll draw in the future, there were enough prize moments in his first week (see photos) to keep the laughs coming.
Here's a look at some of the Hulu team's favorite Conan bits from his first week back on the air.
Obama Endorses Conan
Here's a surefire way to get America to tune in to Conan's first week on "The Tonight Show": Get the president to offer his endorsement of the new host, even if he can't quite remember the guy's name.
Making Strides
So how would a late-night talk show host prepare for his first day on the job? With a checklist, of course. In this opening sketch from the first episode, Conan goes through all his to-do's, from writing jokes to brushing his teeth, only to realize he missed one important task. And so begins a cross-country trek that takes the floppy-haired host all the way from New York to his new location: Universal City, California. Bonus points to the Conan crew for setting the journey to Cheap Trick's "Surrender."
Circle! Circle! Circle!
Now that Conan's on the Universal Studios lot, expect to see him leverage all that it has to offer. "This is a whole world unto itself, Universal," he said in a recent phone call. "From day one, they have told us, anything you want to play with is yours to play with. You look around, this is like being in one of those McDonald's Playlands, there's just all kinds of stuff to explore and have fun with." In the first episode, Conan hijacks a studio tour, taking passengers on a one-of-a-kind trip around the lot -- and to places no tram has gone before.
Conan's New Threads
As Conan says in the opener to this sketch, the host of “The Tonight Show” has to look good, with the best threads in Los Angeles. Given the economy, though, NBC wasn't able to send him to Beverly Hills for a "Pretty Woman"-style shopping spree on Rodeo Drive. Instead, Conan hit up the shops along Los Angeles' Rodeo Road, home to baggy shorts, hoodies, and oversized belt buckles. And what makeover would be complete without a new 'do? That's where the wig shop comes in handy. We dare you not to laugh -- who else could but Conan could pull off his final look?
Will Ferrell Makes an Entrance
Leave it to the star of "Anchorman" and "Elf" to attempt to outshine a talk show host on his first night. Visiting Conan to promote his new film, "Land of the Lost," Will Ferrell (Conan's first guest) makes an entrance worthy of a king -- or perhaps a pharaoh. "I didn’t want to upstage you,” he joked. “Just wanted to come in low key, under the radar.”
Tom Hanks Likes Space
"Tom Hanks is one of the great talk show guests of all time," Conan said. "He's this movie legend who also happens to be a great raconteur and incredibly likable." He also proves himself to be a great sport, as evidenced in this clip from Conan's second night out, where the two discuss the actor's longtime interest in space.
In The Year 3000
In the early days of "Late Night," Conan and sidekick Andy Richter would take a look into the future, all the way to the year 2000. He always thought that certain bits from that show would work at 11:30, he told us by phone, including his riff on a Spanish-language soap opera, "Noches de Pasion con Conan O'Brien." "And there are things like 'Year 2000,' which is basically just a good way to deliver jokes," he added. That doesn't mean he left the sketch untouched: Now that he's on "The Tonight Show," he and Andy are looking into the very distant future, the year 3000, where three websites merge into a single super time-wasting site.
Sweet Tweets
It seems just about every celebrity has a Twitter account these days. As a service to his audience, Conan started monitoring A-listers' Tweets, sharing the Sweetest Tweets with us -- only to decide that perhaps the actual updates weren't all that exciting. And while we're inclined to agree (does it really matter if Ashton Kutcher wants a salad?), the voice of the Twitter Tracker makes even the most mundane tweets a riot, even if he does insist on calling "CoCo" his "bro."
Outfoxing the Paparazzi
Conan’s a smart guy -- he graduated magna cum laude from Harvard, after all -- so naturally he quickly devised a way to deal with Los Angeles’ notorious swarms of tabloid photographers: He’d beat them at their own game. On Thursday he put his plan in motion, but one thing he didn’t count on was the toll it would take on his fair Irish skin.
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