Awards experts say ‘Conan O’Brien Must Go’ … all the way to the Emmy stage

Conan O’Brien‘s fun Max series “Conan O’Brien Must Go” follows the comedian and talk show host as he travels the world meeting new friends and experiencing exotic cultures. The first season streamed in April and took place in the far-away lands of Norway, Argentina, Thailand and Ireland. O’Brien recently scooped up two Emmy nominations for his troubles: Best Hosted Nonfiction Series or Special and Best Nonfiction Writing. And now, Gold Derby’s awards Experts say he should start preparing an Emmy speech.

In the main program category, “Conan O’Brien Must Go” currently has leading 82/25 odds to prevail at the 2024 Emmys over co-nominees “Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr.” at 39/10 odds, “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction” at 4/1 odds, “How To with John Wilson” at 9/2 odds and “The Reluctant Traveler with Eugene Levy” at 9/2 odds.

Six of our eight Experts from major media outlets predict a victory for “Conan O’Brien Must Go”: Ben Travers (Indiewire), Christopher Rosen (Gold Derby), Eric Deggans (NPR), Jazz Tangcay (Variety), Joyce Eng (Gold Derby) and Susan King (Gold Derby). As for the other two, Clayton Davis (Variety) believes “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction” is the one to beat, while Ray Richmond (Gold Derby) goes with “Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr.”

Likewise, nine of our 11 Gold Derby Editors predict a triumph for O’Brien in Best Hosted Nonfiction Series or Special, while 22 out of the Top 24 Users are also going with the Irish funnyman’s program. Agree or disagree with those Emmy predictions? There’s still time to make your own picks before the Creative Arts ceremonies take place on September 7 and 8.

Gold Derby is not currently predicting the Best Nonfiction Writing category at our website. For that contest, the writers of the Ireland episode (O’Brien, Jessie Gaskell, Matt O’Brien and Mike Sweeney) face off against the writing teams from “How To with John Wilson,” “Jim Henson Idea Man,” “The Jinx — Part Two” and “The Reluctant Traveler with Eugene Levy.”

Season 1 of “Conan O’Brien Must Go” has an impressive 94% score at Rotten Tomatoes, with Stephen Rodrick (Variety) calling it a “keeper” and noting, “The encounters work because O’Brien doesn’t treat his new friends as fools — rather, he revels in the fact that he is the fool.” Daniel Fienberg (Hollywood Reporter) remarks, “Conan’s Max travel series is smartly stupid fun.” And Tania Hussain (Collider) raves, “‘Conan O’Brien Must Go’ offers an abundance of heart and humor while rendering the comedian’s latest chapter irresistibly captivating and uproariously funny.”

O’Brien is already a four-time Emmy champion. He triumphed for writing both “Saturday Night Live” (1989) and “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” (2007), and he dominated in the creative achievement race for both “The Team Coco Sync App” (2012) and “Conan Without Borders” (2018). However, he has never won a program Emmy for any of his prior shows. Might “Conan O’Brien Must Go” be the series that finally wins him the top prize? Stay tuned, Coco fans.

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