This clip does a better job of absolutely burying Jay Leno than even Jimmy Kimmel could — and it’s all from Jay’s own mouth, six years ago.
You gotta watch the whole thing. The last 35 seconds are the best part. “I don’t want to see anybody ever have to go through that again.” Oh really? Maybe someone should send him this clip.
Jay’s 2004 Announcement – watch more funny videos
Despite being a long-time Letterman & Conan fan, I’ve actually felt that Jay has been getting too much blame in this whole fiasco, when Jeff “Darth” Zucker and his fellow NBC executive knuckleheads are the real villains. But watching this video makes me realize that, no, actually, everybody else is right: Jay’s a villain too. If he wanted to put up a stink about being pushed out by NBC, the time to do it was back in ’04. But he didn’t, because he knew exactly what would happen if he did: broken friendships, huge ego battles, a massive clusterf*** of controversy. We know he knew this, because he said it himself, on air! Yet five years later, when put-up-or-shut-up time arrived, Jay seemingly forgot all of that. Now, instead of heeding the better angels of his nature — on display in this clip — he continues to ignore his own sound advice. By reversing his decision to bow out gracefully, Jay has become exactly the person he promised he wouldn’t: the guy who refuses to leave until someone carries him out on a stretcher. A stretcher made of money. Lots and lots of money.
(Hat tip: Hot Clicks, via @slmandel and @DrSaturday.)
Everyone has the right to change their minds: Brett Favre, Barack Obama, and Jay Leno. So I won’t fault him for his inconsistencies over five years.
It was NBC who couldn’t stand the thought of Leno leaving to another network and hatched this disastrous idea to put him on at 10 PM specifically to get low ratings, but low enough ratings to justify the cost. The stupid thing that they never figured out, though, was that it costs them in other timeslots: people who watch “CSI: Your Community Here” or “The Mentalist” at 10 see commercials for Letterman and CBS’s primetime programming that the people who aren’t watching NBC don’t see.
So NBC decided to undo the Leno-at-10 experiment, but still don’t want him to go to ABC or FOX. He gets ratings at 11:35, so that’s where they want him, and if Conan doesn’t like it, well, they own his ass. Until, of course, Conan went public with his disagreement with this plan, and his good-faith argument won in the court of public opinion.
What’s Leno’s option at this point? If he’s under contract with NBC, then he would, theoretically, have to go where they tell him. As soon as Conan released his statement, Leno was instantly the villain — see Jimmy Kimmel’s spoof in the link — regardless of whether it was ever his intention to steal 11:35 or not. I suppose he could make as big a stink as Conan did and get out of his contract, but he doesn’t have the leverage Conan has.
Though at this point, he might want to try it, because everyone thinks he’s a jerk and it’s unlikely his new 11:35 show will survive, especially if Conan goes to FOX and steals more of his audience.
I’m with you, Brendan. I do wonder if something like the following happened:
Leno was originally going to leave. NBC then panicked. Without Leno, it would be Letterman vs. Conan, and Conan would get killed, at least at first. This way, they at least would keep Leno’s audience (or so the thinking went). So they went to Leno, who is feeling pretty good at this point, and propose this Leno show.
Once that fails (which I suspected it would – Bill Simmons did a great podcast on this recently, including him playing his prediction when this was announced that this set Conan up to fail), NBC then PANICS!, and Leno, who has had his mind changed by his having a new show.
But then again, that’s charitable, and Leno doesn’t really deserve that at this point. He’s been a jerk for years now, when I listen to the insiders that know the late night comic world. This clip was one of the few times he wasn’t, and NBC probably helped him get his jerky nature back.
Now . . . I’m with Mike. The only way Leno can get his reputation back is to leave NBC over this. That would instantly change the perception, and leave NBC in a huge, well deserved bind. What would they do if they lost not one, but two of their big names out of this?
I’m with Mike on this, Leno was put in an unfortunate situation by the idiots at NBC who were too afraid to lose Leno OR Conan, so they tried to keep both, even though that was never a viable strategy. Then they panicked and now we are where we are.
B. Minich, I’ll take Leno over that ego-centric, lecherous, un-funny Letterman anyday, even if he did handle this poorly. Plus Paul Schafer just creeps me the hell out…
This whole thing is NBC trying to keep both men. But anybody could have told you this was impossible.
Conan and Jay could both retire and be very well off with the money they already have. The problem they both have is their staff that they don’t want to see get shafted. Conan’s people just pulled up roots in NY and moved to CA for what… 7 months of work? And Jay’s (175) people played a part in his negotiations based on his statements last night before Headlines. I wish NBC would put Jay’s half hour show between Conan and Fallon. Jay may not like it but it’ll keep his people in a job and end this mess.