Conan O’Brien is making a return to his TV roots. No, not Late Night—The Simpsons.
Simpsons co-showrunner Matt Selman has revealed that O’Brien will appear as himself on the season premiere of The Simpsons.
Selman broke the news while appearing on the podcast Doughboys.
“Can I give you guys a Simpsons scoop?” he asked the hosts as they were discussing the former late-night host.
“Conan O’Brien will be guest appearing on the season premiere of The Simpsons,” Selman said, going on to clarify that O’Brien will be “playing himself” in the episode.
It won’t be the host’s first time as a character on the show. He made an appearance in Season 5’s “Bart Gets Famous” in 1994. In the episode, Bart appears on Late Night with Conan O’Brien (which had just debuted five months earlier).
However, Selman said that O’Brien’s role in the upcoming episode will be “a much bigger part.”
As Conan fans know, O’Brien is closely associated with The Simpsons. Following his time as a writer on Saturday Night Live, O’Brien joined the writing staff of The Simpsons in 1991. While there, he wrote and produced some of the show’s most fondly remembered episodes, including “Marge vs. the Monorail.” (In March, Entertainment Weekly ranked that episode as the show’s greatest.)
Conan was writing for The Simpsons when Lorne Michaels plucked him from relative obscurity to host Late Night with Conan O’Brien in 1993.
The appearance also won’t be Conan’s only late-night homecoming this year. In April, he returned to The Tonight Show for the first time since he stepped down as host in 2010. Seth Meyers has also teased a possible return of O’Brien to Late Night.
Those wondering what a modern-day Conan might look like in Simpsons form don’t have to look far for a glimpse. In 2021, Homer Simpson held an exit interview for an animated O’Brien on TBS’ Conan on the final night of the host’s 28-year late-night run.
Selman has been a writer and producer for The Simpsons since 1997. He has served as joint showrunner for the long-running Fox series (alongside Al Jean) since 2020.
On Wednesday, O’Brien scored two Emmy nominations—Outstanding Writing for a Nonfiction Program and Outstanding Hosted Nonfiction Series or Special—for Conan O’Brien Must Go, his Max travel series.
The Simpsons’ 36th season is scheduled to premiere on Sunday, September 29, at 8 p.m. ET on Fox.
