BURBANK, Calif. — In his opening monologue here one recent Thursday afternoon, Conan O’Brien told his studio audience he’d discovered a trick to help him get used to the new half-hour running time of his TBS late-night show, “Conan.”

“I ordered a Domino’s pizza,” he said. “I’ll know when it arrives to shut the [expletive] up.”

This was just a test show — an episode not intended for air and an opportunity for O’Brien to adjust to the new rhythms of his refashioned program, which formerly ran for an hour a night.

As of Tuesday, he will have no such safety net. That’s when, after having taken a break for more than three months, O’Brien will resume hosting “Conan” in its shortened version.

[Read an interview with Conan O’Brien about the new “Conan.”]

This modified program is one he hopes will be looser, less predictable and more intimate, with a spirit informed by other projects that O’Brien pursued during his production hiatus, including a podcast and a live tour.