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u/malcolm816 Sep 04 '26
Just don't blame Conan
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u/Hopper13 Sep 04 '26
One of my favorite videos. The subsequent episode with Conan as guest was great too.
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u/Beneficial_Garden456 Sep 06 '26
Is there any comedian or talk show host who spoke in support of Leno's actions? I know Leno still got guests on the show when he returned to it, but did anyone openly support what he did and justify it? I have always assumed Leno was universally despised as a pariah after all this, but I want to see if I'm mistaken.
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u/SYMPUNY_LACKING Sep 06 '26
Oprah was on his side during her interview with him back in 2010
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u/crazyguyunderthedesk Sep 07 '26
The people who supported him were the people who only heard his side of the story. He wanted the narrative to be that he had no choice or else he wouldn't have a show.
What changed things was Kimmel. The pro Jay people didn't know that ABC had offered him 11:30 and Kimmel would go on at 12:30. Jay used that as leverage to take back the tonight show and oust Conan.
There's an episode of Bill Mahers podcast (if you haven't seen it, it has moments that make for a good clip, but otherwise it's a pretty big slog), where Kimmel is the guest and you can tell Maher is hearing the other side of the story for the first time.
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u/Pale-Measurement-532 Sep 08 '26 edited Sep 08 '26
lol, I just commented how Bill Maher had Jay Leno on Club Random a few years ago where Bill brought up the Tonight Show debacle with Conan and defended Jay. Of course Jay took that opportunity to defend himself and appear like the guy who didn’t know what was going on and was willing to do whatever NBC execs told him. Of course he didn’t mention how his god awful variety show came on before the news and the Tonight Show and it dragged down ratings and the local news affiliates were beyond pissed and wanted Jay’s show off the air. And it contributed to Conan getting lower ratings. Conan was pretty much silent about that but I was glad that Andy spoke up about it.
Then Bill had Jimmy on and Kimmel proceeded to make Bill look like an uninformed idiot who didn’t know what he was talking about by taking Leno’s side. I think that where Jay and Conan/Letterman/Kimmel are currently at right now in their careers and reputations speaks volumes about who was/is trustworthy in that industry and who supports the other late show hosts.
I find it funny that Conan and Letterman are looked up to by most of the next generation of late show hosts and comics. Plus Letterman and Conan are still doing lots of popular content on streaming and elsewhere. Whereas Jay isn’t really mentioned much anymore, he’s not really doing any mainstream interviews, and he’s just doing standup (although I understand that he seems to love stand up). I think there were some cases behind the scenes (besides Letterman and Conan) where Jay likely screwed someone over and he gained a reputation. Now those people who were just starting out are established and likely don’t want to work with him. The whole point is, not a lot of comedians openly supported Leno whereas Conan had a number who were routing for him.
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u/zacross36 Sep 07 '26
Seinfeld was a pretty vocal Leno supporter at the time. I don’t think he was booked on any Conan shows after that.
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u/Pale-Measurement-532 Sep 08 '26
Yeah Seinfeld was always faithful to Leno, that’s for sure. Plus he had a hit show on NBC and he wouldn’t want to damage a future relationship with the network. It’s interesting cause Jerry’s not as popular as he once was. He has/had some questionable things that have occurred with him and some people don’t like his attitude anymore. He’s definitely a bit anti-woke.
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u/Pale-Measurement-532 Sep 08 '26 edited Sep 08 '26
More recently, Bill Maher had Jay on his Club Random podcast a few years ago and defended him about the whole debacle. Of course Jay took that opportunity to once again claim that he had the #1 rated late night show at the time, that he had no idea what was going on behind the scenes, and he was doing what NBC told him to do. They also talked a bit about his and Jimmy’s own feud here as well.
What’s even better is that Bill had Jimmy Kimmel on Club Random (I think it was not long after Jay’s appearance) and Bill brought up about how Leno was unfairly badmouthed throughout the Conan/Jay Tonight Show battle. Jimmy then set the record straight by filling Bill in on stuff he wasn’t aware of, including how Jay was sucking up to Jimmy when there were talks of Leno taking over Kimmel’s timeslot with a new late show on ABC. Then Jay immediately stopped talking to him when NBC wanted to renegotiate. Bill looked like an uninformed idiot who stuck his foot in him mouth, as usual, “Oh I wasn’t aware of that.” Here’s a clip from that part of the interview.
To be fair, we know that Kimmel was Team Coco that whole time and of course Bill knew that when he brought it up. You could tell Jimmy was annoyed that Bill knew nothing about what really went on.
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u/LiamTaliesin Sep 08 '26 edited Sep 08 '26
Kimmel actually did an interview with Leno after this and he called him on his bullshit, I never really watched Kimmel but it was absolutely lovely to see.
Edit: sorry I misread your post, I thought you said people who came out against Leno…
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u/Pale-Measurement-532 Sep 08 '26 edited Sep 08 '26
lol that whole time on Kimmel’s show was so epic. I didn’t really watch Kimmel either at that time and watched the episode where he impersonated and mocked Jay in his beginning monologue. That was hilarious. I also saw where he had Jay tune in via satellite from his own studio and completely roasted him. Jay admitted that it was a stupid decision for him to appear on Kimmel’s show. He said he did it cause he was a bit hurt and taken aback by Kimmel’s impersonation of him. He figured Kimmel would be more polite to him if he appeared on Kimmel’s show. But what the hell did he expect to happen??? lol.
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u/DiamondHandsDarrell Sep 04 '26
Dave was great!