Conan O’Brien’s delayed exit gave Jay Leno a chance to explain his side on the NBC fiasco on Monday.
Leno, the former host of the ‘Tonight Show’, spoke about his cancelled ‘Jay Leno Show’ and told viewers that “we might have an answer for you tomorrow” on his return to ‘Tonight’.
Despite getting jabs from fellow comedians for pushing O’Brien out of the spot and joking about the late-night shuffle, Leno gave a serious remark about the issue on Monday.
He started with the decision that NBC made in 2004 for the comic to give the ‘Tonight’ show to O’Brien in spite of his high late-night ratings. At that point, he agreed to retire “to avoid what happened the last time”, when NBC picked him over David Letterman over a late-night battle in 1992.
According to Leno, he did request for the network to cut off his contract twice: first, when he was asked to pass ‘Tonight’ to O’Brien and second, when NBC decided to cancel his primetime show. But NBC turned him down twice as well and offered him the primetime slot and moved him to 11:35 pm for a half-hour show.
Leno accepted the offer even if he knew that a talk show at 10 p.m. wasn’t “a good idea” and after getting assurance from NBC that O’Brien would agree to have the ‘Tonight’ show moved to 12:05 p.m.
“I have no animosity toward him”, Leno said, referring to O’Brien. “This is all business. If you don’t get the ratings, they take you off the air”.
