Conan O'brien, Latenight Host

Nine years and 11 months ago today, Conan O'Brien debuted as the successor to David Letterman on NBC's "Late Night" franchise. NBC hedged its bets in that rocky first year by giving O'Brien 13-week contract renewals, but the one-time writer for "Saturday Night Live" and "The Simpsons" is now basking in the show's first Emmy nomination for variety series and a 10th anniversary primetime special set to air Sept. 14. O'Brien spoke with The Hollywood Reporter deputy editor Cynthia Littleton last week about what he has learned in his on-the-air training during the past decade.

The Hollywood Reporter: Why did you re-up with NBC last year through 2005? You had a lot of options and were offered a lot of money by competing networks.
Conan O'Brien: I wanted to re-up for 13 weeks. I thought that would be really funny, but (NBC executives) weren't interested in that. ... I had a strong feeling that my work wasn't done here. We did our claymation special (in May), which was one of my favorite things I ever did. I think our best work is still ahead of us. ... The reason it appealed to me is that Dave (Letterman) did it for something like 11 1/2 years. This contract will put me through to 12 years, and I remember thinking that that meant something to me. I remember what it was like when people thought I might not last 10 more minutes. The idea that I might be able to have a 10th anniversary special -- that meant something to me. It's not all about money. I was offered a ton of money, and that's great, but I wanted the deal that enables me to keep doing this thing I love doing. That's the most important thing. I know I didn't maximize my earning potential -- my agents hate it, they keep reminding me. But I'm getting to do good work, and I think I'm still getting better at this job. I'm also making much more money than I ever thought I'd make in high school, so really, what's the problem?

THR: When you first started, when you were still dealing with those 13-week contracts, what were the hardest things about making the transition from writer to performer?
O'Brien: The hardest thing for me was that I knew I had a funny persona and that I had a point of view. I knew it was there. I didn't become this person over the last 10 years; I was this person. But I didn't have the chops to be this person on TV every night for an hour. ... It was just very tricky for me to learn how to be Conan O'Brien on TV for nine-minute periods of time and then throw it to commercial seamlessly. ... For the first year and half of the show, you know, you could almost see me thinking, you could see me trying to be a good talk show host. It wasn't fun to watch.

THR: When did you get to the point of feeling comfortable on camera?
O'Brien: What happened over time is that all the things you have