In celebration of tonight’s highly anticipated return of Conan O’Brien to our living room, we thought we’d take this opportunity to put down The War For Late Night — Bill Carter’s phenomenal account of the Late Night Wars 2.0 — by offering up a collection of must read links. See for yourself after the jump, and feel free to add any we may have missed in the comments below.

• 7 Things You Didn’t Know About ‘Conan’
• A List of Dos and Dont’s for Conan’s New Show
• Conan O’Brien prepares to launch version 3.0 of his talk show
• Why Conan will have NBC seeing red
• How excited should we be for Conan O’Brien’s TBS show?
• Secrets of the Late Night War
• The Unsocial Network
• American Express hires Conan O’Brien as pitchman
• High Hopes for Conan O’Brien’s Debut
• Conan O’Brien’s Mystery First Guest — Revealed!
• Throw Your Own CONAN Premiere Party!
• Conan’s Real Late-Night Foe Isn’t Jay or Dave — It’s Jon Stewart
• A new Top Ten list for Conan
• Conan O’Brien’s Return to Late Night Gets Taiwanese Cartoon Tribute
• Conan O’Brien gives you five reasons to watch his new show: ‘Reuniting Led Zeppelin is a goal of mine’
• It’s C-Day: Will Team Coco Come Home? Will the Beard Stay
• The 11 Best Pieces of Conan Fan Art
• Play Conan-Premiere Bingo!

BIG LOVE’s Big Finish
Under normal circumstances, we wouldn’t be celebrating the cancelation of one of the most interesting and unique shows to hit the small screen in years. That said, there was very little normal about HBO’s BIG LOVE. So rather than wallow in today’s news that the cult HBO favorite will call it quits after it ends its fifth season which is scheduled to kick off this January 16, 2011, we’d rather look on the bright side and applaud HBO for giving co-creators Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer ample time to craft a proper send-off and celebrate the fact that Sheffer told E! Online that, “I think you’ll agree this is definitively our best season to date.”

Bill Carter’s The War For Late Night
Still having trouble wrapping your head around the fact that the once would-be-king of late night, Conan O’Brien, is mere weeks away from unveiling his new show on… TBS? Us too! Which is why we thought that now would be as good a time as any to take a look back at how he got there. And what better way to do that than by picking up the must read tome from Bill Carter, one of the industry’s most well-connected authors. Hitting both digital and analog book shelves on November 2nd, 2011 comes Carter’s highly anticipated follow-up to The Late Shift, The War for Late night: When Leno Went Early and Television Went Crazy. But hey, don’t take our word for it, try before you buy courtesy of this awesome excerpt just posted over on VanityFair.com.

Conan O’Brien “Zero Hour”
And speaking of the man, the myth, the keeper of the Masturbating Bear, perhaps the most pivotal characters in Carter’s axis of funny will follow up his “Live Coco Cam” by letting fans in on the ultimate warm-up for his new TBS show. Conan O’Brien will host “Show Zero” on Monday November 1st, at 11PM (ET) / 8PM (PST), which will feature celebrity guests, “The Basic Cable Band,” and Andy Richter as they help O’Brien warm up for the main event. See for yourself at TeamCoco.com, YouTube.com, and Facebook.com.

Paula Abdul vs. AMERICAN IDOL
Now we know what you’re thinking! Just what on earth is the traditionally reality-free TV Addict doing expressing excitement for Paula Abdul’s upcoming Dance Show on CBS? Well, allow us to explain. The exciting aspect isn’t so much that Abdul is returning to our living room with LIVE TO DANCE, but rather that CBS is reportedly pitting her new show up against AMERICAN IDOL. A strategic move that can only mean one thing: Networks smell blood! And come January 2011, rather than continue to sit idly by as IDOL dominates the primetime television landscape, CBS is making the first of what we suspect will be a series of high profile moves by FOX’s competitors to stop the once unstoppable juggernaut that is was AMERICAN IDOL.

That CASTLE Show!
The only thing cooler than the news — first reported by Michael Ausiello — that CASTLE has tapped Laura Prepon to play Natalie Gray (an actress who has just been cast as Nikki Heat in the movie version of Heat Wave) is if the brains behind CASTLE nabbed fellow THAT 70′s SHOW co-star Topher Grace to play her foil. We’re just sayin’

The Parents Television Council (PTC)
In response to an upcoming issue of GQ which features a very revealing spread of GLEE stars Dianna Agron and Lea Michele in various states of undress, the PTC released a statement chastising the magazine for what they’re characterizing as “a disturbing spread… bordering on pedophilia.” Why they’re not smarter than a 5th grader: Because in the grand tradition of primetime television shows that take place in high school (see: Gabrielle Carteris, Ian Ziering and Luke Perry to name a few), the kids from GLEE aren’t actually teenagers! Memo to the PTC: It’s called acting! And in the same way in which Kevin McHale’s Artie isn’t really confined to a wheelchair and Cory Monteith sounds like a rock star with a little help from his friend called auto-tune, 24 year-olds Dianna Agron and Lea Michele are only pretending to play high school students.

Conan O’Brien
Earlier today, Conan O’Brien announced the first week of guests for his upcoming TBS late night series CONAN. Among them are Seth Rogen John Hamm, Michael Cera, and Tom Hanks. Why Conan’s not smarter than a 5th grader: Well, if the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, we find ourselves asking the slightly awkward albeit obvious question: Why is Team CoCo risking the return Tom Hanks — who let’s face it — didn’t exactly help launch Conan’s previous late night endeavour on the right foot. We’re just sayin’

Larry Klayman
According to the NY Daily News, Larry Klayman says he may sue NBC for allegedly stealing his pitch for a series about an anti-establishment layer and turning it into OUTLAW. Why he’s not smarter than a 5th grader: He saw OUTLAW, right?

The American Viewing Public
If Tuesday’s ratings are any indication, America has officially turned their back on NBC’s PARENTHOOD. Why the average American is not smarter than a 5th grader: Well, there’s a lot of reasons really, but in the case of PARENTHOOD we can’t help but scratch our head over why America as a whole has summarily decided to reject this fantastic series. No really. If this were a science fiction show, a comedy that isn’t produced by Chuck Lorre, or one that is produced by Joss Whedon, we’d completely get it! But at least on paper — thanks to in no small part to a phenomenally likeable cast, relatable family situations and writing that consistently tugs at one’s heartstrings — we can’t fathom how PARENTHOOD hasn’t caught on. Can you?

SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE
As is tradition on the Thursday before showtime, SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE has just released a slew of promos hyping this weekends instalment hosted by Easy A star and current “It” girl Emma Stone. Why SNL is not smarter than a 5th grader: For the simple reason that they don’t seem to grasp the purpose of a promo — which is, to get potential viewers excited for the show — not leave them questioning whether they should bother tuning it all thanks to SNL’s uncanny ability to de-funny event the funniest of America’s sweethearts.

“Congrats to my staff on 4 Emmy nominations. This bodes well for the future of The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien.” tweeted Conan O’Brien with regards to his now defunct NBC Late Night show nabbing a nomination for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series.

This just in: TBS is on Team Coco!

In a surprise shocking move, TBS announced today that Conan O’Brien will headline a comedy program airing Monday through Thursdays at 11PM eastern starting in November.

According to TBS, talks with O’Brien began in earnest just last week after George Lopez personally called him to ask that he consider joining the network’s late-night line-up.  “I can’t think of anything better than doing my show with Conan as my lead-in,” Lopez, whose show will be pushed to midnight said.  “It’s the beginning of a new era in late-night comedy.”

For his part, Steve Koonin, president of Turner Entertainment Networks said, “Conan has been the comedic voice for a generation. TBS already has a huge audience of young comedy lovers, and Conan’s show will give these fans even more reasons to watch our network.”

“In three months, I’ve gone from network television to Twitter to performing live in theaters, and now I’m headed to basic cable,” said Conan, as only Conan can. “My plan is working perfectly.” Adding via twitter, “The good news: I will be doing a show on TBS starting in November! The bad news: I’ll be playing Rudy on the all new Cosby Show.”

O’Brien is currently touring the United States and Canada with his live show, Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour. 

“Hey Internet: I’m headed to your town on a half-assed comedy & music tour. Go to http://TeamCoco.com for tix. I repeat: It’s half-assed.” tweeted Conan O’Brien this morning in an effort to promote his half-assed soon-to-be-sold-out comedy tour.

Good News: When Lisa’s classmates ostracize her for being an overachiever, coming to her defense is none other than First Lady Michelle Obama. Bad News: Voiced by Angela Bassett, in the March 21 episode of THE SIMPSONS entitled “Stealing First Base”

Good News: Bigwig AMERICAN IDOL and FOX executives totally read theTVaddict.com!!! Bad News: Thus, putting an end to our very popular two-week old feature AMERICAN IDOL: By the Numbers. [Source: RealityBlurred]

Good News: Even under the constraints of 140 characters, Conan O’Brien is still as hilarious as ever. Bad News: For his late night competition if/when O’Brien returns to television… with a vengeance. [Source: @conanobrien]

Good News: Neil Patrick Harris has landed the lead in Smurfs: The Movie. Bad News: For self-professed-Smurfholic Michael Ausiello. [Source: DHD]

Okay, at this point, we’ve gotten used to seen SNL serve up sketches that are moderately funny at best and about as topical as a copy of Time magazine from 2006, but must their hosts be plucked from the recycling pile as well? With all due respect to MAD MEN’s Jon Hamm (slated to host the supposed laffer on January 30) or camera spokesmodel Ashton Kutcher (February 6), we humbly offer up a few ideas for hosts who don’t come with their own “Been There, Done That, Hosted SNL” t-shirts.

Zachary Levi
NBC obviously knows they have a potential hit in the slow-to-grow CHUCK as evidenced by the ad campaigns devoted to it (not to mention their not putting our favorite Buy More employee on the shelf), so why not give the show’s star a shot in the host slot? Could prove to be a mutually advantageous situation for both shows.

Joel McHale
Live from New York… it’s the bitingly-funny star of COMMUNITY, the funniest NBC comedy that you’re not watching. And given that the guy used to still hosts THE SOUP — which is often funnier on an off day than SNL at its best — he knows a thing or two about bringin’ the funny.

Stephen Colbert
Considering the fact that Colbert was kind enough to give NBC executive Dick Ebersol time on Wednesday night’s THE COLBERT REPORT so he could plug NBC’s upcoming Olympic coverage, it seems only fair there be a little quid pro quo.

Stewie Griffin
Sure, it would take some advance planning but in a world where news networks are using holograms, why couldn’t the diaper-wearing, show-tune-crooning, matricide-plotting FAMILY GUY baby be animated into scenes?

Conan O’Brien
Rumor has it the late-night funny guy has some free time on his hands. (What? Too soon?)

While this TV Addict is the first to admit that the sub-zero temperature at which the Networks insist on keeping the hotel ballroom at this week’s Television Critics Association Press tour — combined with the fact that I’m writing this at 5:30AM having spectacularly failed to adjust to the time difference — may be having adverse affects on our brain cells. We have to ask: Did anyone else find it slightly peculiar that Conan O’Brien spent the entirety of last night’s TONIGHT SHOW interview with star Zachary Levi talking about his work in the FOX produced Alvin and the Chipmunks 2: The Squeakquel with nary a mention of the premiere of his much-buzzed about NBC series CHUCK?

Seriously. Are we crazy? Is it a sign of things to come? Is it wrong that NBC’s current late night predicament is far more entertaining than a good 60% of the Peacock Network’s current schedule? Discuss.