As Conan O’Brien Readies His New Show, He Opens Up On Personal Goals & Jay Leno

Conan O’Brien will make his highly anticipated return to television on Monday, when his new self-titled late night show will debut on TBS. Now, the famous redhead is opening up about his goals for the show, as well as his rough departure from NBC’s “The Tonight Show.”

“I am an incredibly fortunate person… And as crazy as this sounds, my career with NBC was overwhelmingly positive until [being fired from ‘The Tonight Show’],” Conan told Playboy magazine, in an interview for their December 2010 issue. “The entertainment business has an amazing way of turning really lucky people into bitter, angry, rage-filled, jealous, resentful wretches who can’t believe they got screwed. Some things have worked out great for me, some things haven’t. You keep going.”

After being removed as host of the long-lived late night show (and replaced with former host Jay Leno), Conan said he would not be inviting Jay onto his new show.

“[Jay] can come as the musical guest, because that I want to see,” Conan joked. “No one knows he has an operatic range.

“No, there are certain things I will not do, regardless of the price,” he added.

The former “Saturday Night Live” writer joked that he has set the bar relatively low for his new TBS gig, saying, “I’m going for eight months on the air. All I want to do is break my ‘Tonight Show’ record.”

“I’m a guy who wants to say I did more push-ups today than I did the day before,” he continued. “And the good news is, I did only one push-up yesterday.”

Read the full interview with Conan when Playboy hits newsstands on November 12.

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