Netflix is coming clean: Star Search can’t claim Conan O’Brien.
Following LateNighter’s report in early December that the streamer’s teaser for its Star Search reboot erroneously included O’Brien’s name among the celebrities who got their start on the original show, Netflix has updated the video to remove his name.
The move came as O’Brien, who addressed the error on a new episode of his podcast, confirmed he never appeared on the 1983-1995 series (nor its 2003-2004 reboot).
O’Brien reacts in real-time to his inclusion in the teaser on today’s Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend, which was recorded before Netflix had removed his name.
“Wait, is that real? I don’t get that,” O’Brien says. “I am flabbergasted.”
“That is not my origin story. If it was, I would shout it to the rooftops,” he clarifies. “I wish I had been on Star Search. I would have had at least a little more experience before I took over Late Night in 1993.”
As O’Brien fans well know, if anyone deserves credit for the host’s ascension, it would be Lorne Michaels, who plucked his former Saturday Night Live writer from obscurity to replace David Letterman. (Late Night fans who recall the “Who Made Huckabee?” saga, meanwhile, may say that “Jon Stewart made Conan.”)
On his podcast, O’Brien goes on to theorize that he may have done a bit about Star Search during his Late Night days that caused the confusion. Indeed, Late Night did do at least one Star Search bit—but O’Brien wasn’t a part of it. When sidekick Andy Richter served as a judge on Star Search in 1994, his experience was turned into a remote segment on Late Night. (O’Brien also interviewed Star Search host Ed McMahon on Late Night seven times.)
While O’Brien clarifies that he’s “not upset at all” about Netflix’s error, he’s not done getting to the bottom of the issue.
On next week’s episode of Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend—available to SiriusXM subscribers today—O’Brien calls in Team Coco’s in-house lawyer David Melmed to explore the possibility of suing the streamer for damages and/or defamation.
“This is Netflix, which is a German word for ‘deep pockets,’” O’Brien quips, seeing the opportunity for a big payout.
When Melmed suggests that O’Brien ask Netflix for his name to be removed, the host isn’t so sure. “I can prove in court that my name brings people real joy, and to put it up and then take it away is going to be a wound for any of the American people who are watching Netflix,” O’Brien suggests. “And many people are, as they should be because they may soon be my overlord.”
(Netflix is in the process of acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery, for whom O’Brien produces his travel show, Conan O’Brien Must Go. WBD also produced his TBS series, Conan.)
Tipsters point out to LateNighter that Backstreet Boys, listed alongside O’Brien on the Star Search teaser, also never appeared on the show.
