NEW YORK, NY - MAY 14: Conan O'Brien speaks onstage at the TBS / TNT Upfront 2014 at The Theater at Madison Square Garden on May 14, 2014 in New York City. 24674_002_1242.JPG (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Turner) (2014 Getty Images)
Conan O’Brien beat out his fellow late-night hosts when he and a small crew flew to Cuba over the weekend to film for his TBS show.
With the trip O’Brien, whose Havana episode will air on March 4, became the first American late-night show to film in Cuba since the U.S. embargo began in 1962.
The network said Sunday that the late-night host took advantage of President Barack Obama’s efforts to thaw relations with the Caribbean island country.
The episode will give American audiences a rare glimpse into Cuban daily life, TBS said.
According to the Deadline, Conan has been speaking about traveling to Cuba for a couple of months and waited until President’s Day weekend because his show does not do a live episode on the February holiday, giving him the needed travel time for the trip.
One of the last times a late-night show filmed in the Communist nation was when Jack Paar famously interview former leader Fidel Castro for the “Tonight Show” in 1959.
Since Obama’s announcement in December, Scott Pelley anchored the “CBS Evening News” from Cuba, while NBC’s Brian Williams and ABC’s David Muir followed to Cuba last month.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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