Conan: Kimmel Taking Letterman’s Last Night Off Just a ‘Lazy Excuse’

Jimmy Kimmel, who expressed his unconditional love for David Letterman in a Time magazine essay published earlier today, will not be airing a new episode opposite his hero’s final Late Show this coming Wednesday night. As he told The New York Times, he has “too much respect for Dave to do anything that would distract viewers from watching his final show.”

Asked about Kimmel’s decision by Charlie Rose in an interview set to air tonight, Conan O’Brien joked, “That’s just a lazy excuse. Anything to get a night off.”

“He’s constantly looking for a way to not do a show, he just likes to sleep,” he added. Unlike Kimmel, O’Brien said he plans to “take some of the spotlight” away from Letterman by coming out of the closet on air and doing his show naked.

Turning slightly more serious, O’Brien said he just assumes “no one’s going to be watching any of us anyway.” Since his TBS show starts 30 minutes before the Late Show, he said he plans to say something “from the heart” about Letterman and then “tell people to turn the channel” at 11:35 p.m.

Watch video below, via PBS:

[Photo via screengrab]

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