Conan is back!

Conan O’Brien returned Monday night from a 10-month hiatus to star in his new self-titled TBS talk show. The first episode of Conan drew in 4.2 million viewers, making its mark as the most-watched late night talk show episode of all time. The episode beat out David Letterman, Jay Leno, John Stewart and Steven Colbert.

After a 7-month stint on NBC’s Tonight Show, Conan had fun bashing the peacock in his opening sequence. He compared his expulsion from NBC to Sonny Corleone being set up and gunned down at a toll booth. Conan also came out with his new, bearded look and

Andy Richter reprised his roll as Conan’s sidekick, but one notable missing gang member was Max Weinberg. Weinberg was less than pleased after losing his title as band leader of the Tonight Show Band (since he was frequently gone and touring with Bruce Springsteen and The E-Street Band) to guitarist Jimmy Vivino, while they were on The Tonight Show. The lost job title also came with a pay-cut, so when Conan was kicked of the NBC lot, Weinberg decided not to follow.

For the sake of irony, Conan’s first guest was Arlene Wagner, curator of Leavenworth, Washington’s Nutcracker Museum. His second guest was Seth Rogen, who kept the atmosphere light and had some funny banter with Conan. He was followed by Glee sensation Lea Michelle. The musical guest was Jack White (who also was the last musical guest on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien) who, with Conan, covered Eddie Cochran’s “Twenty Flight Rock.” It was a good performance and nice ending for the first episode of a show that will hopefully be on for longer than 7 months.