It’s been a surreal sight watching late night hosts deliver monologues to largely empty theaters as they do their darnedest to carry on during the current coronavirus crisis.
But Conan O’Brien has a plan for how to continue shooting a full-length TV show during the age of COVID-19. His solution? He’s going to film the whole thing on his iPhone.
“I am going back on the air [on TBS] Monday, March 30th,” O’Brien wrote on Twitter Wednesday. “All my staff will work from home, I will shoot at home using an iPhone, and my guests will Skype.”
Speaking to Variety, the show’s executive produce Jeff Ross said that: “We have a staff that wants to work, that doesn’t want to not get paid, and you just want to keep the business going.” Since the team has shot small online segments using the iPhone before, they think it should be possible to simply extend that process to the show’s full 30-minute runtime.
While the iPhone camera can be used to produce some stunning results, however, Conan O’Brien warns that there could (and probably will) be technical issues aplenty. “This will not be pretty, but feel free to laugh at our attempt,” he wrote on Twitter. “Stay safe.”
Right now, some laughter sounds pretty good!
The first “Shot on iPhone” episode of Conan will air Monday, March 30, on TBS.
