Jay to Oprah: 'This Whole Thing Was a Huge Mess'

By PopEater Staff Posted Jan 27th 2010 04:00PM

Jay Leno had two options for spilling his guts about the mess at NBC: A) cry it out with Barbara Walters, or B) pay a visit to Oprah Winfrey. He chose wisely.

Winfrey sat down with the late-night host earlier this week, and though the interview doesn't air until Thursday, a small portion of it has been leaked to build up interest in the much-anticipated segment. Mind you, it's a pretty bland exchange between the pair, but it does tell us that Leno will be playing the victim.

While chatting about Conan O'Brien, the man Leno has deposed with his return to his former gig, Winfrey asks the following:

Winfrey: Have you talked to Conan in person?
Leno: I haven't talked to him through all this. No. I haven't.
Winfrey: Did you want to pick up the phone?
Leno: Yeah, but it didn't seem appropriate.
Winfrey: Why?
Leno: I don't know. I think it -- let things cool down and maybe we'll talk, you know.
Winfrey: Were any of the things that he said about you hurtful?
Leno: No. They were jokes. And that's okay. I mean --
Winfrey: So jokes don't hurt you.
Leno: It's what we do, you know? You can't -- it's like being a fighter and say when you got punched in the head, did it hurt? Well, yeah. But you're a fighter. That's what you do.

EOnline.com has the clip:

In an official promo for the episode, Leno's voice is used only once. Following a barrage of questions from Winfrey, he is heard uttering the obvious: "this whole thing was a huge mess."

Tags: jay leno, oprah winfrey

Comments

(34)

Wednesday 27 January

By alysse

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Okay, I read the article and you say you can tell he's playing the victim. I think someone is reading more into the exchange than is there. Phone no, Huge mess, Jokes were Jokes that's the business. You take your punches. All pretty basic and true. Just seems like he's being honest. Unless you want him to lie and say nothing ever hurts. Which is stupid.

By marc

you know in these difficult times i cant help but laugh, conan is crying and he just got 33million to go away,most americans are losing their jobs and collect about 500 a week until it runs out,the guy didnt perform and should be laid off like anyone else, icant believe oprah wants to talk about this, maybe she wants jerrys job,it just blows my mind the money waisted for doing nothing

Thursday 28 January

By Sharon Hamilton

marc I agree with you. Let these two crying jokers try to make it for 1 yr on what millions of HARD WORKING Americans do. How many of us work from payday to payday. What one of Leno's antique cars cost could help some poor family put a kid thru college. As for Conan he looks like a bobble head and has about as much appeal as one.

By Linzy81

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Jay Leno needs to stop playing the victim and own up to what he did to Conan and the legacy of the Tonight Show.

By pat

What did Leno do, Oh yeah he got fired from the Tonight Show because Conan wanted it, Then when he Conan got bad ratings, NBC wanted to put Leno on for a half an hour and Conan on for a hour but just a little later and Conan had a hissy fit and QUIT so they gave Leno the Tonight Show again AFTER CONAN QUIT. All Leno's fault , Poor , Poor Conan

By ba4fran

I can't understand why people are making Jay the bad guy.Conan says he only had seven months to be successful. Most tv shows are given alot less than that before they are cancelled, AND he walked into a show that was successful. If he tanked, it's because HE wasn't good enough. He should man up and face the fact that he failed miserably, and stop blaming Jay for his failure. Jay doesn't have that much power "to take the show away from Conan"...he's under contract!!!

By Nicole

Leno is the one who failed miserably. It was his shows terrible ratings that caused the whole mess to begin with. NBC couldn't get rid of him because his contract was worth 150 million so they tried to keep him around. Conan didn't want to do the Tonight Show at 12:05 so NBC chose to get rid of him because his contract was only 40 million which was cheaper than getting rid of Leno. Leno should have refused to take the show away from Conan. The fact that he didn't speaks volumes about his character.

By Mary-Jo

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touche!

By junior

i think old big jaw leno is gettin ulgy then ever

By King David

Hershey car show?? What are you going to do -- go to Mexico??? Since I found out that all of the Hershey's chocolate candy IS NOW MADE IN MEXICO I REFUSE TO PURCHASE/EAT IT!!! Maybe you will be lucky to see Leno in Mexico but I guarantee you he will have bodyguards around him to protect him "from big mean guys like you"!!! (chuckle)

By Dean

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Conan put his whole staff out of work which shows Conan only cares about Conan

By cyberma777

Dean, that's not true. Conan took a lower personal payout so that his employees would get one too. It really doesn't matter who you like best, Conan did not have the ratings and Jay did. Conan could have the biggest fan club in the world, but the fact is, they were not tuning into his nightly show. This is all about money for the network. Conan will find a home at some other network, like Davis Letterman did, and may find success there. I have to say, however, that if all of Conan's shows had been as good as they were his last two weeks, we might not be having this conversation.

Conan put his staff out of work which shows Conan only cares about Conan.All he had to do was move one half hour.

By Jen

I agree if Conan wanted it bad enough he would have taken a half hour later. All of a sudden he's Mr. Big Shot. I liked Conan's show and I also liked Leno's show I think NBC made the mistake. Why didn't they give each a little longer our presidents get 4 years and look how well that's worked. I think NBC is making a big mistake more people are watching cable because they pay for it so why not watch it. NBC wants to make money then go to cable.

By handsome

Having Leno lead in the Tonight Show at a later hour is no different than his leading it in earlier. He failed to keep viewers on the network, and made it more difficult for Conan to get exclusive guests (being they both booked from the same local pool). Viewership would only get worse if he was a direct lead in. And to people believing Conan appealed to the elite, the are greatly mistaken. What made him approachable was he was a geek, or outcast, who made it. Not the kid trying to be popular by being mean and spiteful.

By mroneoftheguys

Conan played his cards so well...Played the big victim by not moving his show start time 30 mins..got over 30 million...his staff got about 15 million..and he gets to work his show somewhere else in Sept....poor guy sure got it bad..and he cryed when he left...and now Oprah wants in the act so as to get some viewers....wonder how much money the networks have made over this little bit of drama............

By jlcpear

NBC was the one who screwed the whole thing up. If you recall, Jay wasn't the one who decided to move. NBC decided that when iy was in the #1 spot and Jay was always railing them about being fired. They also had the poor choice of Conan doing the Tonight Show. No wonder they are always last place. Who is running that place, a 5th grader?

By my98xlclassic

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

By julie

Conan's crying all the way to the bank.

By Teri

I have to laugh sorry. HAHAHAHAHAHA....there. What Jay did to Conan, are you guys for real. First of all Conan took a show that was #1 and placed it at the bottom of the list. So unless Jay ownes NBC which he does not, he didn't change anything. Second people forget that Conan is the cry baby, all he had to so was move up a 1/2 hour and still keep the tonight show. Conan didn't want that. Instead he wants to take the money and run and leave his staff high and dry. So it's Conan who by the way doesn't have a funny bone in his body who is the problem

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