The Bearded One is back.

After an extraordinary amount of hype, Conan O'Brien returned to late last night, debuting his new 11 p.m. talk show on TBS.

No surprise here, but "Conan" is a lot like O'Brien's old shows ("Late Night with Conan O'Brien" and "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien") -- and that's not a bad thing. I loved those old shows, and there's really no reason I can think of for him to drastically change a formula that his loyal Team Coco adores.

In his first episode (titled "Baa Baa Blackmail" -- each episode will be named), O'Brien made a lot of self-deprecating jokes about his infamous dismissal from NBC and about being on basic cable (also not a surprise). His sidekick Andy Richter was back, and really funny (on the couch where he belongs instead of behind a podium). The Basic Cable Band sounded good, and guests Seth Rogan, Lea Michelle, and Jack White -- all good. O'Brien even played a number with White, and you could tell he was having a blast.

In short, the first five minutes of "Conan" -- a short film recounting the upheaval at NBC and his path to TBS -- were funnier than five years of "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."

Watch that clip below.

Chris Rock was pretty hilarious last night giving Jay Leno a hard time about all the changes at "The Tonight Show," starting with the question of "the redhead guy" who was there last time Rock was a guest. Leno kept trying to change the subject, but Rock was driving that train.

At one point Rock asked Leno, "Did the redhead guy take Kevin?" Leno told him no, Kevin Eubanks was somewhere "working with kids." Rock: "Kids?! Stop it! Y'all done fired Kevin and got a cheaper brother to take his place!"

Is anyone funnier than Chris Rock? Watch the video below:

NBC has legally kept Conan O'Brien from speaking out on television or in print about his departure from "The Tonight Show," but all of that ends this Sunday when Conan is interviewed on CBS's "60 Minutes."

The NBC deal said Conan must keep his silence until May 1. "60 Minutes" will air on May 2. Because of that clause in the contract, CBS can't even use Conan's face before May 2 in promos for their show.

Conan O'Brien, who very famously left NBC's "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" earlier this year after a shake-up involving Jay Leno and shifting time slots, will host a new late night talk show on TBS beginning in November.

The news is a bit of a surprise since industry watchers were betting on Conan moving to Fox, since his people have been in negotiations with them for awhile. Negotiations with TBS began only ten days ago. The New York Times has more on how the deal went down.

Conan's new show will air at 11pm, against "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report," both on Comedy Central. TBS already has a late night talk show at 11pm, hosted by George Lopez. Lopez will move to midnight, which is kind of funny considering the reason Conan left NBC to start with was because he didn't want his show moved to midnight.

Could Conan O'Brien be coming soon to a venue near you?

Representatives of the former "Tonight Show" host confirm that O'Brien is planning a series of live shows across the country -- and perhaps even across the world -- in advance of a possible new TV show, which could come as early as this fall.

Though nothing definite has been decided, his reps believe the shows will only be in major cities and in large venues, so it doesn't sound like he'll be hitting up the DPAC. But you never know...

The episode of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" featuring the Jay Leno interview will air this afternoon on WTVD.

In the interview, which was taped on Tuesday, Leno tells Oprah that he has not talked to Conan O'Brien personally about the upheaval over "The Tonight Show." According to The New York Times, Leno initially told Oprah that the jokes about him told on other shows were not hurtful, but later indicated that he was bothered by them.

The interview with Oprah is designed to repair Leno's damaged image, and according to early reports, he was in full martyr mode during the show.

The long goodbye is over. Conan O'Brien's final "Tonight Show" aired on NBC last night, and Conan proved this once and for all: The man is a class act all the way.

Conan was greeted by a tremendous ovation from his fans, who chanted, "Co-nan! Co-nan!" He settled the crowd and said, "Thank you, that's gonna have to last me awhile."

It'll have to last him for seven months, anyway.

It was a great farewell show, with Tom Hanks, Will Ferrell, Neil Young, Steve Carell and an awesomely spectacular show-ending musical number with surprise guests.

At the beginning of Conan's monologue he announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, we have exactly one hour to steal every single item in this studio," but the show was not filled with bitterness at all. It was bittersweet, for sure, but Conan was effortlessly gracious throughout.

Perhaps I am too easily amused, but this is so hilarious to me. Last night's "Jimmy Kimmel Live" presented a short Ken Burns-style documentary on NBC's Late Night Wars of 2009-2010. We even get General Jebediah Jay Leno reading aloud letters to his wife Mavis. The old guy they interview (the "TV watcher") eating the donut really cracked me up.

Hope for Haiti (8pm) - This is airing on pretty much every network in the world. Read more about the program and those scheduled to perform.

Caprica (9pm, SyFy) - The premiere of a new show which serves as a prequel to Syfy's acclaimed hit, "Battlestar Galactica." "Caprica" is set more than 50 years prior to BSG and tonight's episode focuses on a tragedy that impacts the Graystone and Adama families. Eric Stoltz and Esai Morales (left) star. Our review of "Caprica."

Spartacus: Blood and Sand (10pm, Starz) - Lucy Lawless is one of the stars of this new action drama about a rebellious Roman slave played by Andy Whitfield. Tonight, Spartacus and his fellow fighters align themselves with Rome to protect their homeland, but become disenchanted with Rome when their village is invaded by barbarians.

Late Night with Conan O'Brien (11:35pm, NBC) - It's Conan O'Brien's final night hosting "The Tonight Show" for those bozos at NBC, and considering some of his other antics this week, there's no telling what he'll do. It'll be worth checking out. His final guests are scheduled to be Tom Hanks (who gave O'Brien his much-despised nickname "Coco"), Will Ferrell (who was his first guest on the show), and Neil Young.

Like David Letterman, I get up every morning promising myself that I'm finished with this whole Conan O'Brien-Jay Leno mess, but I just can't help myself. 

Today's gem is a brilliant computer-animated explanation of the NBC fiasco from a television news organization in Taiwan: