Jay Leno Has 'No Animosity' Towards Conan O'Brien

By Mike Hess Posted Jan 18th 2010 11:15PM

Jay Leno has joked here and there about the drama with NBC and Conan O'Brien, but on Monday night, Leno used his show to directly address the situation and his seemingly tense relationship with O'Brien.

"But through all of this - through all of this, Conan O'Brien has been a gentleman. He's a good guy. I have no animosity towards him. This is all business," Leno told his audience. Watch:

Leno opened up his statement by saying he wanted to give his audience "my view of what has been going on here at NBC." He went on to detail that in 2004, NBC essentially pushed him into retirement because Conan was getting offers from other networks. So, Jay retired.

According to Jay, NBC then wanted to keep him on their network and said to him: "'How about primetime?' I said, 'that will never work.'" He said the network executives told him it will be a hit. "People will go crazy," they told him. Leno also said NBC told him: "We guarantee you two years on the air, guaranteed. Now for the first four or five months against original shows like 'CSI' you'll get killed, but in the spring and summer when the reruns come, that's when you'll pick up.'"

Leno says he wasn't overly thrilled with NBC's idea and decision to move him back to 11:30 with a half-hour show, but he obliged.

"I said, 'Okay, I'm not crazy about doing a half hour, but okay. What do you want to do with Conan?' 'We'll put him on at midnight, or 12:05, keeps 'The Tonight Show,' does all that, he gets the whole hour.' I said, okay. You think Conan will go for that? 'Yes, yes.'

The crowd then burst into laughter, as Conan obviously didn't say yes. Instead, he's walking away from NBC and potentially being bought out for upwards of $40 million.

Jay says after he saw Conan was upset and released a statement saying he didn't want to move his show, NBC offered him the full gig. I go, 'Yeah, I'll take the show back. If that's what he wants to do. This way, we keep our people working, fine.' So that's pretty much where we are. It looks like we might be back at 11:30, I'm not sure. I don't know."

Still, Jay wanted to stress how Conan -- who many feel took the brunt of some poor decision making -- was a class act.

"Through all of this, Conan O'Brien has been a gentleman. He's a good guy. I have no animosity towards him. This is all business. If you don't get the ratings, they take you off the air. I think you know this town, you can do almost anything. You get ratings they keep you. I don't get ratings, he wants. That was NBC's solution. It didn't work so we might have an answer for you tomorrow. So, we'll see. That's basically where it is," Jay said.

Tags: conan obrien, ConanObrien, jay leno, jay leno show, JayLeno, JayLenoShow

Comments

(452)

Tuesday 19 January

By who cares

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MY ASS ITCHES.

By webpilot13

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HAHAHAHAHAHAH GET CHECKED FOR WORMS

By Jim

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Jay's show tanked. He should have the decency to retire. Personally I do not find him funny.

By CAV44

Leno's new show tanked because it sucked. If his return to late sucks as well it will also go down in flames. I like Leno the man but that new show, which I tried watching twice, sounded like it was put together by monkeys....and not very smart monkeys either.

By carolyncrackers

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JAY LENO IS A CLASS ACT. CONAN SEEMS TO BE A NICE GUY-JUST NOT WHAT THE NETWORK NEEDS. LENO IS RIGHT, IT IS JUST BUSINESS!!

Wednesday 20 January

By Carol

Uh, people, NO ONE was preventing viewers from watching Conan at 11:35pm. He couldn't draw the 11:30 crowd. CONAN ISN'T FUNNY -- OR APPEALING. Well, he DID appeal to drunken college boys at 12:35am, but that's a different crowd. Like it or not, Jay Leno was NUMBER ONE when NBC edged him out. NBC should pay through the nose!!

By jeff

YES YOU HIT IT ON THE BULLS EYE JAY LENO IS GREAT CONAN MAY AS WELL GO TO FOX THATS HIS GRADE LEVAL

By Olivia

Jay was the one without the ratings, he shouldn't be talking! Conan and jimmy are the only good things about NBC, and Jay is just holding EVERYBODY back.

By yvette dyson

Jay Leno couldn't get the viewers in an earlier time slot, so Conan has to give up the Tonight Show so Jay can have it back?? As far as I am concerned Jay made a bad move, so deal with it. Conan got screwed !! I am sticking with Jimmy Kimmel.

By lita

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No Yvette, Conan was asked to move a 1/2 up, and this important for you to understand. Conan was never able to get the ratings for 11:30, why is the tid bit of info always missing. Had Conan brought the ratings, he would never be asked to move his show up a 1/2 hour.

By norm57

NBC used to be a good network, these days they stink.

By Margaret Dacundo

I really enjoy Leno the best. Until his shift change he was great. Conan is a jerk and not really funny . Most of his skits and jokes are juvinile. Keep Jay!!!

By dan chalfant

They both got a bum deal and are both getting a bad rap. How many people would take the 40 Million buy out that Conan will get and smile all the way to the bank, you would never have to work again.

By Marc

"This is all business" _ How many movies have we seen where the villain says exactly that to his victim? _ It sure is big of Leno to hold no animosity towards his victim. (a victim, it should be noted, who will walk away with more money than most of us will ever see in a lifetime!) _ Jay Leno is a smarmy swaggering a-hole who apparently feels a need to build himself up by making others look foolish, while, on the other hand, Obrien is generous and self-effacing. _ If NBC thinks that they and Jay Leno have not been damaged by this whole disgusting drama then they are nearly as stupid as those who will watch the Tonight Show after Conan Obrien leaves.

By dianaprince

If you watched the show, and not just read the recap, Leno said that Conan was a standup guy/gentleman, because when he started the story...Jay's audience booed when Jay said that NBC wanted to give Conan the Tonight Show cause he Conan was getting other offers, and wanted to keep him at NBC. That's why Leno said that. Well, one of the reasons.

By Belladonna

So let me get this straight. Jay doesn't get the ratings they want in prime time so Conan is out a job????

By Chele

No, Conan is out of a job because he was killing the Tonight Show with his lack of ratings. The man is just the least entertaining person I have ever watched.

By Mike

What Leno leaves out is that his 10:00 show tanking is the reason O'Brien's Tonight Show wasn't doing well. Instead of sticking around after the primetime dramas and the news, the audience was aleady gone.

That sounds more like it Mike. Now I understand.
I watch Dave any way. Could never stand Jay.

By vdetillion

WHAT I DO NOT DO IS WATCH NBC FOR ANY REASON AT ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOT THEIR NEWS NOT EVEN THEIR LOCAL STATION I AM THOUROUGHLY DISGUSTED WITH MAIN STREAM MEDIA NBC IN PARTICULAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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