Jay Leno Explains it All (to Oprah Winfrey)

Jay Leno, in his usual laid-back, likable style, gave Oprah Winfrey an inside view of all the Tonight Show turmoil in an interview on The Oprah Winfrey Show Thursday, January 28, 2010. Looking tired, or perhaps just weary of all the hoopla, Jay Leno marveled that a television show could cause such angst. Leno admitted that he really doesn't understand why anyone would be angry with him, however, because, as he put it, he was "fired twice by NBC."

It seems that most people, myself included, thought Jay Leno had a lot more say in the decisions being made than he claims to have had. I honestly thought that Leno had decided to retire; changed his mind and decided maybe doing an earlier show would be fun; tanked big, and demanded his original show back - all without regard for the feelings of Conan O'Brien or anybody else.

According to Jay Leno, that was not even close to how it went down. Leno claims to have been suddenly informed that he was basically being canned from The Tonight Show while at the same time being told he was a valuable commodity to NBC, who refused to let Leno out of his contract. (Although admittedly, Leno later mentioned "Doing everything by handshake" since he wasn't much of a "contract kind of guy"). Later, Leno says, he was offered the earlier show.

Never afraid to take it on his copious chin, Jay Leno took full responsibility for losing his audience, claiming that the second firing was justified since it is all about the bottom line. He did manage to point out that while his numbers were down 14%, O'Brien's dropped 49%; but Leno also said O'Brien was a friend, and that he would be happy to have him on his show. Even Jimmy Kimmel came in for a share of the talk, having recently appeared by video on Leno's show. Leno says Kimmel "sucker punched" him with his talk of Jay's insensitivity to the people under him. "After all, we have children, " Kimmel said, "you only have motorcycles and cars to worry about."

As for whether he is being "selfish" to accept NBC's offer to take back The Tonight Show, Leno said it seemed like it would actually be the opposite not to consider all the people that work for and with him, who would be out of a job if he walked. And, he pointed out, who wouldn't accept such an offer?

While it might seem somewhat disingenuous for such a veteran as Jay Leno to claim not to have any pull, even Oprah Winfrey backed him up on that one, saying people don't understand how television works, and how much Oprah loves having her own show so that she is in charge.

All in all, Jay Leno came across all over the place on Oprah Winfrey's interview. Leno seemed genuinely puzzled both as to why people care so much about a television show, and why they would be so mad at him regardless. Jay Leno pointed out that since he doesn't touch the money from television, but lives off his stand-up comedy, he doesn't really need to do television, but then talked about the dream job NBC was giving him another shot at in the form of The Tonight Show. Jay Leno is doing what he's got to do to rebuild an audience for his March 2010 return to The Tonight Show, and using the Oprah Winfrey show as a platform to do just that. Whether it will work remains to be seen.

Resources: The Oprah Winfrey Show