I don't think there's anyone who has been harder on Jay Leno over the years than me. I'm a Letterman guy all the way, but there's something oddly...comforting about having Jay back at 11:35. And you know what? Seeing Jay talk about how that Super Bowl ad with David Letterman and Oprah came about is almost touching. It seems like Jay was truly moved by Letterman asking him to be in the ad, even if it was mostly just to do something funny and surprising.
Jay talked about it on the show last night. (For the record, Dave talked about it too, but just made a few jokes, including one about how the people who played Jay and Oprah in the ad did a great job).
What You Missed Last Night: Leno on That Super Bowl Ad with Dave & Oprah
Final 'Jay Leno Show' Airs Tonight
This little bit of news has been lost in all of the Leno/Conan/NBC chaos (and overshadowed by this past Sunday's Super Bowl commercial with Jay, Dave, and Oprah), but tonight is the last episode of 'The Jay Leno Show.'The guests tonight are Ashton Kutcher, Gabourey Sidibe, and Bob Costas. I know, they're not exactly the type of guests that a person has on their final show (no offense to Mr. Kutcher, Ms. Sidibe, or Mr. Costas), but this probably was not meant to be a final show when they were booked. Or maybe it's no big deal even to them and they just want to end things.
I'm sure there's going to be a lot of tears tonight as Jay shows a montage of all of the great bits from his show. Set your DVRs America!
I don't know what's in store for this Jay Leno person after his show ends tonight. But he's a funny, talented guy, and I wouldn't be surprised if NBC gave him another show at some point.
Leno refuses to admit to Oprah that he's culpable in Conan mess
When you look at the surface, it seemed like Jay Leno was quite revealing during his interview with Oprah Winfrey today. He said that he was "devastated" when NBC came to him in 2004 and told him that they wanted to give Conan O'Brien The Tonight Show. He claimed he was "embarrassed" by what he called "a big mess," and that NBC would have handled it better if "they came in and shot everyone. Then it would have only been a two-day story."
But when Oprah repeatedly tried to get Leno to react to how most of the public is reacting to this story -- that Jay should have stepped aside to give Conan a chance to succeed, and that he is unfairly taking back Conan's dream job -- Leno refused to play along. Not sure if he did so because he's truly not self-aware of what this whole mess looks like or he just doesn't care. But as far as Jay's concerned, this was all just business, and his decision to take back Tonight and Conan's departure are mutually exclusive events.
Clips of the interview are after the jump.
Continue reading Leno refuses to admit to Oprah that he's culpable in Conan mess
Howard Stern warned Conan to be wary of Jay Leno
You might have wondered why Howard Stern really declined to be Conan O'Brien's last few shows on The Tonight Show. Here's a possibility: Howard hates being proved right. Sure, it's a long shot. TVTattle dug up an old Late Night interview from 2006 with the longtime radio host warning Conan, "I don't see this guy (Leno) leaving and letting you walk in and I'm concerned about you."
Nice call, Howard. Would you also be willing to take over my stock portfolio and attend my upcoming IRS audit with me?
Leno talks to TMZ about Conan, Letterman, and the Masturbating Bear
The ever-present TMZ caught up with Leno getting out of his car the other night (they always seem to catch him getting out of a car) and they asked him about Conan's last show, whether he'll use the Masturbating Bear (that's supposed to be capitalized, right?), and what he thinks of David Letterman.
Leno also says that he hasn't spoken to Conan at all since this whole thing started, and that tells you a lot.
Leno also says that he hasn't spoken to Conan at all since this whole thing started, and that tells you a lot.
Oprah to interview Jay Leno next week
So what does a celebrity do when he wants to look good to the public again? He goes on Oprah of course!That's what Jay Leno is going to do. Oprah Winfrey is going to interview him for a segment that will air next Thursday. Let's predict how this will go, shall we? He'll come out to a lot of applause, he'll make some jokes about how NBC screwed both him and Conan (which Leno has been doing this past week, trying to look like NBC has wronged him in some way - pretty strange considering Leno got exactly what he wanted), make some political jokes, try to come off as The Nice Guy (TM).
Now...will Oprah give Conan a chance to be on her show at some point? Who will get the first interview with Conan anyway? I pray it's David Letterman, on March 1.
When Leno returns to The Tonight Show, he'll have a new desk and couch!
I'm going to give NBC Universal TV Chairman Jeff Gaspin the benefit of the doubt in this interview over at The Hollywood Reporter's Live Feed. If he's serious in some of the things he's saying, then it's pretty sad.First Gaspin says that the decision to replace Conan O'Brien with Leno at 11:35 was based on "the facts," that The Tonight Show was down 49% and the affiliates were down 14% and that it "made sense to try to come up with some other formula for late night." And that was to put Leno back at 11:35 and (try to put) Conan at 12:05, which he didn't go for.
But you know what? Leno won't have Leno as his lead-in.
Continue reading When Leno returns to The Tonight Show, he'll have a new desk and couch!
Hulu users are not big Jay Leno fans
I was on Hulu this morning looking for a clip from The Jay Leno Show for another post I'm doing, and I quickly found out that Hulu users are not on Team Jay. I let my cursor rest on one of the episodes (his January 19th one featuring Chelsea Handler), and some information about the show popped up, including user-generated tags. The above picture is a screenshot from Hulu, and if you can't read it, the tags say, "hack," "thief," "unfunny," "has been," and "backstabber."
If you scroll all the way down on the Jay Leno Show page on Hulu, in addition to a pretty nasty comment thread about how he stole The Tonight Show from Conan, you'll see a place where you can tag videos. Currently Leno has 51 tags, and the ones I mentioned above aren't even the worst ones. They're ranked by order of use, and "hack" is number 1, having been used 66 times. However, "nicest guy in tv" has been used four times, so that's something, right?
Five reasons why Jay Leno should be Conan O'Brien's final Tonight Show guest
The Tonight Show has a handsome list of throwback guests, Will Ferrell and Tom Hanks who were the first and second guests when Conan O'Brien took over, on what is presumed to be his last show this Friday. Seriously, they still haven't resolved this thing. Say what you will about the dunderheads-in-chief at NBC, but at least they are consistent at failing.
And while it is nice to remind the audience and the network of the heavy hitters that Conan will have in his corner when he bids his former employer farewell, I'd like to see him take it one step further. Conan O'Brien should have Jay Leno (yes THAT Jay Leno, is there another?) as his final guest.
Sure, it sounds like a bigger pipe dream than mounting a Van Halen reunion tour with the undead corpse of Jimi Hendrix as the opening act, but here's five reasons why it would not only make sense for another small chapter of The Tonight Show dynasty, but for the television dynasty as a whole.
Continue reading Five reasons why Jay Leno should be Conan O'Brien's final Tonight Show guest
What You Missed Last Night: Jeff Zucker on Charlie Rose
We've heard from Jay Leno, we've heard from Conan O'Brien, we've heard from Dick Ebersol, and we've even heard from Southland's Ben McKenzie. But what about the guy who started all this, Jeff Zucker? He gave an interview to Charlie Rose last night and it's up at Rose's site (I'd embed it here but...I can't).
I love how Rose starts the conversation by saying that things have gone "downhill" for NBC and that it's "in shambles." Zucker quickly corrects him.
Fans rally for Conan outside Universal Studios
If you live in Los Angeles, be prepared to run into a lot of Conan O'Brien fans with severe colds over the next week.Hundreds of dedicated "Cone-heads" braved some of the nastiest weather LA has seen in years to gather outside Universal Studios to show support for O'Brien and opposition over NBC's decision to remove him from The Tonight Show.
As multiple rain storms swept through the area, intersections flooded and cars choked out in waste-deep water. Wind gusts tore palm trees frond from frond, and flood channels threatened to overflow their drainage pipes.
But, throngs of orange-clad O'Brien enthusiasts gathered outside Universal's main gate -- urging the passing motorists to honk if they supported Conan's quest to hang on to the 11:30 PM slot on NBC.
Gallery: Conan fans rally outside Universal Studios
Continue reading Fans rally for Conan outside Universal Studios
Southland's Ben McKenzie loves the cancelling of Jay Leno
The whole Jay Leno/Conan O'Brien shakeup may have the rest of the world crying like jilted prom queens, but it's got one man grinning from ear to ear. And no, it's not Jeff Zucker. That would be more of a giant, belly shaking James Bond villain laugh. Ben McKenzie, the man who tore into Jay Leno and his former network for pushing his cop drama Southland out of its time slot when Jay moved into primetime, has said he's happy The Jay Leno Show is going out of commission.
While he says that Leno is a "great guy," it still doesn't change his sentiments that he's "glad it failed...Things have worked out in a good way."
I'm sure Conan seconds those thoughts. That should make his first interview on Fox's Up Late at Night with Conan O'Brien especially awkward when he goes on it to promote Southland on TNT.
Jay Leno explains his side of the NBC late night breakdown
A lot of words have been thrown around this whole late night shakeup over at NBC and Jay Leno decided that Monday, more than a week after this whole thing hit the fan, was the right time to address the situation. Sounds like NBC isn't the only entity in this mess with a timing issue.
Leno took some time before a round of "Headlines" during Monday's show to explain the situation from his point-of-view. He insisted that when NBC decided to pull the plug on his show and refused to release him from his contract, the network was sure Conan O'Brien and company would go for the new deal. He also said Conan acted like a complete "gentleman" throughout this ordeal and insisted that no one blame him for this mess. I think everyone is way ahead of you on that last one.
TMZ grabbed some footage of last night's sincere explanation.
Leno took some time before a round of "Headlines" during Monday's show to explain the situation from his point-of-view. He insisted that when NBC decided to pull the plug on his show and refused to release him from his contract, the network was sure Conan O'Brien and company would go for the new deal. He also said Conan acted like a complete "gentleman" throughout this ordeal and insisted that no one blame him for this mess. I think everyone is way ahead of you on that last one.
TMZ grabbed some footage of last night's sincere explanation.
Continue reading Jay Leno explains his side of the NBC late night breakdown
The TV Squad Podcast: Leno and Conan, Simon Cowell, TCAs and more
I'm in Pasadena for the TCA press tour, and it's been one of the most news-packed tours in years. This week, Jason Hughes and Danny Gallagher join me to talk about what's going on in the TV world:- The Late Night Wars, 2010 edition, as we talk about Leno being pulled from 10:00, Conan's "hell no, I won't go to 12:05" letter, and more.
- We discuss Simon Cowell's departure from American Idol and what that means for the show and his new show, The X Factor.
- We talk about being at the TCAs, and some of the fun (and not so fun) things I've been doing here, and other news that has come out of the press tour.
- Our picks of the week, and more.
You can listen to the podcast below, or download from here or by subscribing to our RSS podcast feed. It is also available via iTunes. Feel free to leave us feedback in the comments or drop us a line at tvsquadpodcast [at] gmail [dot] com.
As usual, the music at the beginning and end of the podcast is "Life" by Justin Trawick.
All the Jay Leno impressions you could ever want, if all you want is five
A lot of people both in and around the media have been bashing Jay Leno, and maybe it's a little unfair. After all, it's the dunderheads at the top who are forcing Conan O'Brien to prove his willingness to preserve the sanctity of The Tonight Show, not Jay. That doesn't mean we still can't enjoy more fun at Jay's expense!
Mental Floss has compiled a list of the best Leno impressions that have appeared on a television near you, from Jim Carrey on In Living Color to Dana Carvey on (even shorter lived than The Jay Leno Show) The Dana Carvey Show. Here's my personal favorite of the bunch: Crow T. Robot from Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Mental Floss has compiled a list of the best Leno impressions that have appeared on a television near you, from Jim Carrey on In Living Color to Dana Carvey on (even shorter lived than The Jay Leno Show) The Dana Carvey Show. Here's my personal favorite of the bunch: Crow T. Robot from Mystery Science Theater 3000.
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