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Leno ends his Tonight Show run tonight. Should we care?

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Jay LenoI don't ask this question because I've watched David Letterman a lot more and think he's better than Leno (though I have and I do). This isn't about quality, it's about what exactly we're saying goodbye to.

When Johnny Carson left The Tonight Show in 1992, it was major news because ... well, jeez, he was Johnny Carson. He had hosted the show for 30 years and we probably weren't going to see him on television again (and we didn't, except for an appearance on Letterman's show).

When Letterman left Late Night, it was a big thing that he was saying goodbye because he was not only leaving the network, he was moving to another time slot to compete head to head with Jay. When Conan left Late Night earlier this year, it was a big deal because he was moving across the country to another location, and he was taking over the most iconic late night talk show in history.

But Jay? Not only is he not leaving the state, he's not even leaving the network. He's going to stay on NBC, he'll just be on an hour and a half earlier. That's the only change he's making (and no, I'm not counting whether he'll have a desk or not).

Earlier this week, Lyle Lovett was on Leno's show. When he finished his song at the end of the show, Leno walked over to him and shook his hand and thanked him for doing a little tribute to him in the song. As they were shaking hands, Leno leaned over and asked Lovett, "You're going to come over and see us on the new show, right?"

And I thought to myself, exactly. Right there, Leno summed up why I think this really isn't the "longtime host is leaving his late night show" big news story that it seems to be at first.

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