Conan Chooses TBS

A couple of hours ago, CNN announced that Conan O’Brien has, on the day his nationwide tour is to open in Oregon, reached a deal with TBS that will send the former Tonight host to basic cable. Little is known about the show in question as of yet, but it has been announced that it will debut in November and allegedly serve as the 11:00-midnight primetime tentpole, followed by George Lopez at midnight.

O’Brien himself broke the news to his Twitter followers this way: “The good news: I will be doing a show on TBS starting in November! The bad news: I’ll be playing Rudy on the all new Cosby Show.”

I can only assume this means TBS has officially run out of Office, Seinfeld and Family Guy reruns, but it is impressive that they apparently ponied up some cash for this (TBS hadn’t even really been mentioned until today). But here’s the question — and not to sound snobby — but is Conan too good for TBS? Here’s a guy who followed Letterman and inherited the Tonight Show. Is this a step down or a valuable opportunity to do something as groundbreaking as we know O’Brien is capable? What do you guys think?