TBS extends Conan O’Brien’s late-night talk show through 2012

TBS announced Wednesday that the network has decided to extend Conan O’Brien’s contract, keeping Conan on air at least through 2014.

“We are proud to be in business with Conan O’Brien for the long run,” Michael Wright, executive vice president and head of programming for TBS, TNT and TCM, said in a statement, according to Entertainment Weekly. Wright touted that Conan has been able to build on a strongly young audience, adding that O’Brien’s fans, “...have also built a dynamic online presence that keeps fans engaged like no other show in late night.”

In the statement, O’Brien joked, “I am excited to continue my run with TBS because they have been fantastic partners. This means I’ll be taping episodes of Conan well into the Ron Paul presidency.”

The New York Daily News reports that Conan has been averaging 1.1 million viewers a night, based on Nielsen data TBS included in its announcement. EW notes that the show’s audience has been consistently growing, jumping by 27 percent from October to January. Its audience in the 18-34 demographic climbed 18 percent and 21 percent in the 18-49 demographic in the same time period.

Conan has built an audience across the country, thanks to taking the show on the road, reports USA Today. While the show is filmed in Los Angeles, O’Brien did a series of shows at New York’s Beacon Theater last year. This summer, he will film a week of episodes in Chicago.

O’Brien has been working with TBS since 2010, following his ugly departure from NBC’s The Tonight Show, when Jay Leno returned to that show. Leno had been given a show at 10 p.m., but when that failed to draw an audience, the network pushed O’Brien out and put Leno back on The Tonight Show.