Tonight was the final hour-long episode of Conan ever, as TBS has decided the show will pivot in 2019 to a 30-minute format, and O’Brien’s presence on the network will be expanded into digital properties like his upcoming podcast. An extremely unfortunate consequence of this is the loss of Jimmy Vivino & The Basic Cable Band, who have played with O’Brien since his early days at NBC. On Thursday the host bid an emotional farewell to the only band in late night patient enough to help their host learn rhythm guitar. It’s unfortunate that O’Brien has had to get so darn good at emotional farewells during his career, but watching him say good-bye to the band that actually played at his wedding really does feel like the end of an era.

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