Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien Continue Taking Swipes at Each Other

By PopEater Staff Posted Jan 15th 2010 06:30AM

The late-night wars flourished Thursday night on NBC between Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien.

During his monologue on 'The Jay Leno Show,' Jay made a few jokes at NBC and Conan's expense, E! Online reports.

"In other TV news, Sarah Palin has signed with Fox News to be a correspondent. Fox says, if she does a good job, they'll sign her to a long-term contract. And if it doesn't work out, they'll just blame Leno," he quipped.

"With all the controversy going on here at NBC, actually, 'The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien's' ratings have gone up. So, you're welcome!" Jay added.

Meanwhile, Conan didn't back down.

"I received a letter from the adult film company Pink Visual offering me a role in one of their porno movies. In the movie I'd be having sex with a beautiful woman and just as we're about to climax I get replaced by Jay Leno," O'Brien told his audience. Watch It Below

According to EW.com, Leno will most likely regain control over 'The Tonight Show' while O'Brien will negotiate a settlement to leave the network.

Tags: conan obrien, jay leno, the jay leno show, the tonight show with conan obrien

Comments

(45)

Friday 15 January

By Conan Fan

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Leno is a jackass. He has made his name by making snide, hateful remarks about others(something I have never understood given his FACE). He isnt clever enough to be amusing without sinking to the lowest level and denegrating others.
He is paid far more than he is worth and I turn off my television and contemplate my navel rather than watch him.

By CATLADY28

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Frankly, you are all leaving a ba-a-ad taste in my ears! Lucky for me I have never been hooked on any of these late night monstrosities. I need my sleep much more than I need the idiotic wanderings onstage of these 3 - Letterman, Leno, or Conan. And I would add Palin to that bunch if she is hired.
None of them are funny. Have I lost my sense of humor? Maybe. But - give me some amusing dialogue and I might get it back!

By toddsworld05

How much money does Leno need? Just freaking retire already Jay!!I prefer Conan and i feel bad for what NBC and Leno did to him. It's just not right!

By Vickey Monrean

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It's so--how shall I say it?-fun watching two multi-millionaires fighting over time slots. There is a wonderful beauty in it. A total win win. Meanwhile thousands die in Haiti, I have a disability and the millionaires fight. the world still spins on its axis, time is everything, and the world will be no different no matter who wins. I wish I had a job watching television--I'm so good at it.

By john

Jay sucks no matter what time you put him in. His ratings were falling as Host of the Tonight Show thats why NBC didn't sign him again. NO ONE watched him in prime time so why is NBC sticking with him? Time to tell him good-bye and take your chin with you.

By John

I don't know what ratings poll you were reading but Jay's ratings were not dropping. The shows ratings never dropped until he was off and Conan took over. The reason NBC wants him back is because his ratings were stronger than Letterman's! Since Conan took over the Tonight Show Letterman has been beating them consistently!!! The whole reason NBC made the switch in the first place was to keep Conan with them. He had a good show in its time spot but wanted to make sure he didn't go to another network. At this point Jimmy Kimmel Live is better than the current Tonight Show and I used to enjoy watching Conan. He's acting like a baby now though, and what's up with his hair? LOL!!

By Elaine

I would like to know who is the idiot at NBC that started this Conan taking over the Tonight Show to start with? It was ridiculous to start with. If it's not broke, don't try to fix it.

By duckinnut

Johnny Carson is rolling in his grave.Dont think either of these two are even close to what Johnny was.NBC is a joke of a network,the handling of this will increase the gap of viewership that separates them futher from the pack.Hows the view from down there NBC?

By norma douthitt

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ill go back to watching tonight show with jay cant stand conan he not funny and them still moves he make r stupid why u all make fun of jays chin that is cruel

By Louis

I go to bed at 11PM. Who's Jay Leno?

By Deb

I personally don't see either of these two men at fault. Both are ammusing. NBC is just playing games with the two programs playing one against the other to get the public watching their programming more. NBC has been known to switch programs around on occasion and it doesn't always work. Leno and O'Brien taking potshots at the network as well as eachother is exactly what they get paid to do and exactly what the network wants. Attention!

By Jamie

I Love Jay Leno! I will watch him regardless of what time he is on.

By bertrandaz

NBC promised Conan 5 yrs. ago he could push Leno off. Conan was threatening to leave NBC if they didn't let him have Jay's show. So in an effort to keep Conan from leaving, they moved Leno to prime time. This mess is NBCs fault, not Leno's. Leno was pushed into the prime time spot, did not go there by his own wish.

By MrsJ5557

That is not correct. Jay announced that he was retiring in 2009. That was when Conan signed a contract to take over the show. Then Jay changed his mind and did not want to retire, but NBC stuck by the contract they had with Conan.

By Mark

bertrandaz is correct - Mrs, you don't know your facts. Leno didn't want to retire but NBC forced him to because of the deal to keep Conan on the network, about five years ago now. They gave him the prime-time slot as a sort of "payment" for pushing him out of the Late Show, and what a result...Conan (who isn't funny at all, although I personally don't find Leno very good either, except I always enjoyed "Headlines") watches his ratings drop like a stone against Letterman and Leno gets killed in prime time. It's absolutely NBC's fault and they're getting what they deserve.

By Jeannine

You are exactly right. It's NBC who screwed this whole thing up. Leno had every intention of retiring, but he was a ratings cash cow, so NBC made a deal to put him in an earlier slot while keeping to Leno's agreement to give O'Brien The Tonight Show. When things didn't go as NBC planned, and because of contractural arrangements with both, they (NBC) shot themselves in the foot by trying to manipulate time slots. Now I'm hearing that NBC is going to keep O'Brien from working on any network for three years?!

Now the question is, did NBC create all this for controversy to generate viewer interest?

By Jim

I agree with you on this. I also think that Leno's last jab was the perfect sign that he is a late night "diva". The bit about if "Palin’s FOX news program doesn't work out, they will blame Leno". Given that in this particular case, the Tonight show had been holding its own where the ratings are concerned.

It was Leno's program that was doing the nosedive. This is all fact. BUT, Leno is the one with the hurt ratings, and yet it is Leno that whined to get his old time slot back. Forget the fact that Conan had made the move to take the position after Leno "retired".

Forget the fact that where ratings were concerned, Conan's ratings have been consistently higher than Leno's. Oh hell, forget it all. NBC is standing by a man who was at least at one time a bit classy. Leno is now nothing more that a whining diva, just like Mariah Carey.

Personally, I will NEVER watch another NBC program as long as I live. I will NOT give my view time to any network that would so openly screw its people over like this.

By don

These people are getting paid millions and millions a year for appearing on TV 5 hours a week. Even if they don't get the time slot they want, or if their contracts get bought out, they're filthy rich by most peoples' standards. I find it hard to sympathize with them. They're spoiled brats.

By Frank

the pproblem with jay is...he thinks hes johnny carson. fyi, jay you aint no johnny. get over yourself will ya? JOIN GRASSFIRE.ORG

By pnut166

Jay is a sack.

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