O’Brien returns with ease

November 10, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

AP Television Writer

NEW YORK

Conan O’Brien relaunched his TV career Monday night with a stylishly back-to-basics hour that radiated hard-won lessons from his brief stay hosting “The Tonight Show.”

With his new TBS show “Conan,” O’Brien was back with his longtime sidekick Andy Richter and most of his trusty house band members, now led by Jimmy Vivino (and renamed The Basic Cable Band).

Even O’Brien’s post-“Tonight Show” beard seems familiar by now.

But what’s important is, the show lived up to its promises.

As promised, it was looser, quirkier, more like “Late Night,” where O’Brien thrived for nearly 16 years, than the mainstream “Tonight Show,” where he didn’t.

Monday night’s show garnered more than 4.1 million viewers.

In the 11 p.m. hour, O’Brien’s opening night throttled his direct rivals on Comedy Central.

“The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” was seen by 1.3 million viewers, followed by “The Colbert Report” with 1 million.

Conan even beat Jay Leno, the host who reclaimed the “Tonight Show” chair from him.

Starting at 11:35 p.m., “Tonight” attracted 3.5 million viewers, according to Nielsen Co. figures released by TBS on Tuesday.

O’Brien welcomed viewers to his “second annual first show” and explained why he named the new show “Conan”: “So I’d be harder to replace.”

He boasted that his new show is already scoring “in TBS’ key demographic: people who can’t afford HBO.”