Conan O'Brien will trim TBS show by a half-hour, with fewer celebrities and more travel

Gary Levin | USA TODAY

Conan O'Brien's TBS talk show will shift to a half-hour format in January, as the comedian expands his relationship with TBS to include live events, more travel specials and more digital content.

Conan, currently an hour-long show, will continue to air four nights a week but will adopt a "less structured" format, with fewer celebrity interviews and more digital content from his "Team Coco" banner. The changes were foreshadowed last spring, when O'Brien says he told advertisers he wanted a "more agile" format that "fits the modern landscape."

He told reporters Thursday that with the new format, "the ratio of comedy will rise significantly," and interviews will be used more sparingly, often to fit into a recurring segment. But the show won't change radically: "I'm such a known quantity; I'm not going to come out with a shaved head and an eye patch and a falcon on my shoulder."

O'Brien, 55, who hosted NBC's Late Night beginning in 1993 and had a brief tenure (and tumultuous exit) from The Tonight Show, signed a new four-year contract with TBS last year, amid reports that his show would adopt a weekly format. He is the longest-tenured late-night host on TV, and while he has a robust online presence and younger audience, his overall ratings are modest.

But the new approach seems to be a compromise, and O'Brien has won attention for his Conan Without Borders specials, travelogues to many foreign countries, from Cuba to Israel to South Korea, that proved a "catalyst" for the new format, he says. "It completely changed my notion of what this show could be."

As part of the expanded TBS partnership, O'Brien will also nurture the careers or stand-up comedians as host of a live showcase tour. And this fall, on the 25th anniversary of his first NBC talk show, the entire library of Late Night (and Conan) will be available online, for the first time.

Turner chief Kevin Reilly wouldn't say how he'll fill the 11:30 ET/PT half-hour that will follow the truncated Conan, but joked that the comedian will fill the time to "analyze" his show in a Talking Dead-style series.