TBS renews contract of Conan O’Brien, late-night elder statesman, through 2018

By John Teti | May 14, 2014 | 7:02pm

Aux Features TV

A strange thing will happen when David Letterman retires next year. Conan O’Brien, the man who brought us the Masturbating Bear and Pimp-Bot 5000, will become the longest-tenured late-night host on American TV. O’Brien has presided over one show or another since 1993 (aside from a couple of notable interruptions), and TBS is apparently happy to have its host serve as the genre’s elder statesman: The network just extended his contract through 2018, the Associated Press reports.

To his likely relief, O’Brien’s name hasn’t come up often amid the recent late-night shakeups, and this contract renewal maintains a placid status quo. O’Brien puts on a fun, reasonably popular show four nights a week, and the rest of the world leaves him alone. Now O’Brien will have at least four more years to contentedly ply his trade, barring any unforeseen Jay Leno.