Conan O’Brien Jokingly Fires Assistant Who Lost Home in L.A. Fires

Conan O’Brien revealed just how close he got to losing his house during the first episode of his popular podcast since the ongoing L.A. wildfires broke out earlier this month.

The former late-night host did have to flee his home in the Pacific Palisades—but it was the fire across the city in Altadena that ended engulfing his longtime assistant and podcast co-host Sona Movsesian’s house.

O’Brien, Movsesian, and Matt Gourley convened for a guest-free episode that the host called “unique” as a “massive understatement.” Over the course of about 45 minutes, Movsesian cried over the loss of the home in which she has been raising her young twin sons and laughed cathartically at her boss’ attempts to find humor in the darkness.

O’Brien said he was at work preparing to host the Academy Awards—at this point still scheduled to go forward on Mar. 2—when he got the call from his wife that she only had a few minutes to pack up their stuff and get out. Aside from a small bag of clothes, the only thing O’Brien asked her to grab was the framed letter he received back from author E.B. White when he was just 16.

“I could easily be here saying we don’t have our house,” O’Brien said, explaining that the fire came “right up to the line” of his property. That’s when he began joking with Movsesian about what he could do to help her.

“Money aside, food aside, clothing aside, love and affection aside, sheltering you in any way at any one of my 19 mansions [aside], is there anything I can do for you?” he asked. “And also I’m letting you go. Is this a bad time?”

Starting in 2009, Movsesian spent nearly a decade as O’Brien’s personal assistant before officially leaving that role behind and joining him as podcast co-host in 2018. She published the best-selling book The World’s Worst Assistant in 2022.

As Movsesian played along with cries of “oh no!” O’Brien joked that he was “looking forward to the headlines” that would read, “Conan O’Brien Fires Sona on Podcast Where She Talks About Losing Her Home.”

Giving it right back to her boss, Movsesian said, “I am really glad your house is OK” because “if you lost yours, it would overshadow mine a lot.”

Ultimately, Movsesian called her family the “luckiest unlucky people” in L.A. after friends and fans alike have reached out to make sure they have everything they need and urged listeners to donate to people who are in much worse situations.

As she tried to close the episode by expressing how much she values her job, O’Brien couldn’t help but get in one last dig: “You’re not fired today, but there’s this very expensive electric bike I’m thinking of getting with company funds, and that would mean there’s no room for you.”

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but love you,” O’Brien concluded.