In an unusual departure from his typical banter, Leno described how
solution of a prime-time show would work. It “didn’t seem like a good
idea at the time,” he said, though he ultimately went along.
Leno told the audience that he might soon be back in his old time slot at
Leno’s defense came at the end of another bruising day for
the host of “The Tonight Show.” At one point, a man dressed as Leno was
mock punched in the gut by a man sporting a red wig to represent
O’Brien. There were also protests in
O’Brien and his lawyers have spent the last five days negotiating a severance deal said to be valued at nearly
career and his seven-month stint as host of “The Tonight Show.” The sum
includes compensation for Executive Producer Jeff Ross and other top
staff members.
O’Brien’s last show is expected to be Friday.
O’Brien, in his Monday night monologue, alluded that his exit pact
would not allow him to criticize
“At the Golden Globes,
At
In his remarks, Leno sought to dispel the notion
that he and O’Brien were sparring. He called O’Brien “a nice guy” but
said that “The Tonight Show” under O’Brien did not generate sufficient
ratings. Neither did his own prime-time show, Leno conceded.
“This is all business. If you don’t get the ratings they take you off the air,” Leno said.
Leno’s airing of
planned to cancel Leno’s prime-time program. The network made that
decision to mollify affiliate stations that were threatening to preempt
Leno’s
Leno said that in 2008,
“They said, ‘We want to keep you here.’ … They
said, ‘How about prime-time?’ I said, ‘That will never work,'” Leno
said. But he said top network executives told him: “No, no, we want to
put you on at 10. We have done focus groups. People will love you at
10. Look at these studies showing Jay’s chin at 10. People will go
crazy.”
“Four months go by, we don’t make it,” Leno said. At the same time, ratings for O’Brien’s “Tonight Show” were falling.
“Well, we didn’t help him any, OK,” Leno said.
Nearly two weeks ago, Leno said,
Leno said he again asked to be released from his
contract. They told him he was still “a valuable asset to this company.
How valuable can I be? You fired me twice.”
That’s when
“I’m not crazy about doing a half-hour, but OK. What do you want to do with Conan?” Leno recalled the conversation with
The network executives, according to Leno, said: “Yes, yes.” That brought hoots of laughter from the audience.
But O’Brien didn’t go along with
“They come back to me and they say if he decides to
walk and doesn’t want to do it, do you want the show back? I go, ‘Yeah,
I’ll take the show back,'” Leno said. “That’s pretty much where we are.”
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