Blame Jay!
Jay Leno is emerging as the villain responsible for “Tonight Show” host Conan O’Brien’s imminent ouster at NBC.
“Hosting ‘The Tonight Show’ has been the fulfillment of a lifelong dream for me — and I just want to say to the kids out there watching: You can do anything you want in life. Unless Jay Leno wants to do it, too,” O’Brien sniped last night on his show.
One late-night TV executive said Leno, pushed out of “Tonight” last year, schemed his way into a 10 p.m. show on NBC so he could pounce if O’Brien faltered at 11:35 p.m.
“Once they put Leno on at 10, Conan was done,” the late-night suit said.
That sets Leno up as the man who stole “The Tonight Show” twice.
Leno is widely believed to have backstabbed onetime pal David Letterman to get NBC to put Leno behind “The Tonight Show” desk after Johnny Carson retired in 1992. Carson had preferred Letterman.
Rather than retire last year, Leno took the 10 p.m. slot, knowing it could be a bomb that would leave O’Brien with scraps of an audience, the TV exec said.
That proved to be true, with NBC announcing last weekend it was pulling the plug on Leno’s prime-time disaster and giving him back his 11:35 p.m. slot as a half-hour lead-in to “The Tonight Show.”
“Take it from someone who’s worked in late night a long time: Lead-ins are enormously important,” the exec said.
“Leno’s lead-ins at 10 p.m. were [ratings winners] ‘ER’ and ‘Law & Order.’ Conan’s lead-in is Jay Leno.”
Now Leno seems poised to recapture not only his old time slot but “The Tonight Show” itself, after O’Brien, who took the helm in June, told NBC he won’t stick around if “Tonight” is moved to 12:05 a.m.
The comedy community is blaming Leno.
ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel, on his late-night show Tuesday, wore a gray wig and prosthetic chin and announced, “I’m Jay Leno, and let it hereby be known that I’m taking over all the shows in late night!”
In response, Letterman last night quipped, “On ABC, Jimmy Kimmel did the entire show as Jay Leno. Jimmy Kimmel was so convincing as Leno, today, NBC canceled him.”
A Leno rep said the comic isn’t taking the barbs personally, explaining:
“It’s entertainment value. Jay’s job is to make fun of the news. When he’s the subject of the news, wouldn’t it be hypocritical . . . to complain about people making fun of him? All he asks is that it be funny.”
Additional reporting by Michael Starr