Jay Leno tells Joy Behar that 'Conan was treated terribly'
HLN's Joy Behar asked Jay Leno about Late Night Gate while they were chatting in the green room last night before her appearance on "The Tonight Show."
In the conversation, Behar asks Leno if he feels badly about how things turned out for Conan O'Brien.
"Conan was treated terribly, and I was treated terribly," he added. ... Conan will come back, and he'll be strong and we'll all compete against each other."
-- Maria Elena Fernandez (follow me on Twitter @writerchica)
and I was treated terribly?
What the BEEP is he talking about, Conan was royally screwed over because of him - all these agreements were made years ago - Conan bit his tongue and bided his time, all for nothing. He watched his youth slip away and with it the tremendous opportunities beyond NBC he passed on.
Jay Leno is a putz - just shut up and go away - nobody will care, nobody watches you and less than zero percent actually consider you to be funny.
Posted by: Peter White | March 31, 2010 at 11:39 AM
Let me finish that sentence for you Jay...Conan was treated terribly by YOU. You should have just walked away Jay, like a good man would have done. Conan never would have done that to Jimmy. I will never watch Jay Leno again!
Posted by: VA | March 31, 2010 at 01:17 PM
I noticed that Leno didn't answer the question.
Posted by: Clare | March 31, 2010 at 02:14 PM
That's hogwash @VA. Learn the facts.
Posted by: MadPuss | March 31, 2010 at 02:18 PM
You have to be a bit of an ego-maniac to host the tonight show as long as leno has. It is obviously his fault for not walking out into the sunset, but CoCo's lawyers/management should have seen this coming. I mean did they not learn from the lettergate?
They should've had language in there about Leno not being able to start ANY show before CoCo. I love my CoCo but he should'a never signed that contract with NbC.
Posted by: I am With SO-SO | March 31, 2010 at 04:18 PM
VA, give me a break. Jay has no duty to protect Conan's career from NBC's ineptitude. Do you give up a job so another can have it? No, it's up to the company to decide who to hire or NOT.
Posted by: Kevin on Earth | March 31, 2010 at 05:17 PM
Yeah, Jay got treated terribly when he didn't exit: stage left; was given a show right in front on Conan's; and got the network to ask Conan to move back 30 minutes... all after the big bad network didn't tank his Tonight Show the seven plus struggling months after he succeeded Carson.
He and Conan BOTH got treated terribly.
Posted by: Louis | March 31, 2010 at 05:50 PM
Jay Leno had to know that his having a 10:00 PM weeknight show would siphon off Tonight Show viewers for Conan. When the Tonight Show has changed hosts, especially when Johnny Carson left, the host either retired or went low key. No one took another network show -- not on the same nights or on the same network. Jay had to know that his continued presence would hurt Conan's ratings.
Posted by: martin miller | March 31, 2010 at 06:05 PM
THey should of never done that. Leno was doing great where he was and O'Brien was doing great where he was. There was no reason to move either one of them.
Posted by: Ben Reilly | March 31, 2010 at 11:22 PM