Leno To Oprah: NBC Could Not Have Handled The Tonight Show Worse

by Joe Coscarelli | 4:46 pm, January 28th, 2010

» 4 comments

In his appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show today, Jay Leno told the host that “NBC could not have handled it worse, from 2004 onward,” while being interviewed for the first time about his return to The Tonight Show. Leno went on to say he was “devastated” when NBC honcho Jeff Zucker asked him to pass on The Tonight Show six years ago, and that he told “a little white lie” in sharing his support publicly for Conan O’Brien, according to show notes from the New York Times. Doesn’t a “white lie” imply unimportance? Conan circa 2010 might disagree.

Via the Times:

Ms. Winfrey pressed Mr. Leno frequently about how the reaction to the moves have affected him, especially the accusations that have been leveled against him by Mr. O’Brien’s supporters that he was being selfish and should have retired. (She also cited a poll of her own viewers that showed an overwhelming 96 per cent of them believed he should have left the show to Mr. O’Brien.) Mr. Leno defended his decision, saying he had a staff who wanted to keep working and that he himself had no desire to just walk away from a job he loves.

“If you’re a gunfighter you’d like to die in the street,” he said.

Leno also goes on to say he was “sucker punched” by Jimmy Kimmel‘s skewering of him on The Jay Leno Show, and speaking of Conan, Leno said, “Great performer and good comic and a good guy. There’s no–no animosity there.” On the future, Leno noted, “I think he will have a successful show on Fox or somewhere else. And then we will all compete again and may the best man win.”

Video to come!

Conan O'Brien, Jay Leno, Jay Leno Oprah, Late-Night Wars, Oprah Jay Leno, Oprah Winfrey Show

m

Jay, you disgust me. You should’ve just taken an half an hour after Conan’s show, or at least taken Carson Daly’s spot. That you claim innocence is absolute crap. The day you rehost the Tonight Show will be sickening.
larry.wayne

Jay was pushed out 6 years ago and now the same was done to Conan. I have no problem with it.
Tina

All of this ‘mess’ is rediculous!! Jay never wanted to leave the show when he was fired years ago; he handled the show for his remaining time with extreme Grace; Jay had Nothing to do with Conan not doing well.

Stop all of the energy being wasted on stupid issues like this and direct it toward needed issues, like:
volunteer at schools and hospitals
take a homeless person to dinner
help the seniors in your neighborhoods with needed repairs
etc, etc…

Please stop wasting your time on TV issues and help those that need YOU!
JunkJunk

At the end of the day it really doesn’t matter: they are both still worth millions of dollars.

That said, even though I enjoyed Leno’s iteration of The Tonight Show, he should have been the bigger man and continued to promote Conan as the new host. Leno was given a couple years to improve his ratings. Conan wasn’t given a chance. Not to mention, Leno caused a snowball affect in the ratings that not only impacted affiliate’s news programs, but Conan as well. Leno should have either retired or found another network or something.

That said, I’ll most likely be among the thousands of people who return to watching The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. I just hope it doesn’t suck as much as his current “Show.”