Is there personal bad blood between Conan and Jay Leno?

I am not too savvy about the fine points about all the recent news, but in watching Conan’s monolouge last night, he was ripping in to NBC executives, but not into Jay Leno himself.

Jimmy Kimmel, on the other hand, performed his monolouge last night dressed as Leno (complete with wig and fake chin) and made a dozen jokes about Leno being an egotistical asshole, bent on singlehandedly hosting every single talk show on the air. (Kimmel made it crystal clear that he feels that Jay Leno is fucking over Conan O’Brian)

I have never found Jay Leno funny, but I always bought into his being a decent guy, doing charity benefit shows, donating a big chunk of his fortune to various causes, having a successful longterm marriage etc.

I used to find Conan the best late night host in the business, but the last few years (and most certainly after starting the “Tonight Show”) his bits have gotten too repetitive, increasingly stale and generally less funny. That said, I have always also had him pegged as a good guy in real life, one who knows how lucky he was, and was grateful for his opportunities. (his emotional farewell episode of “Late Night With Conan O’Brian” from New York was actually really touching)

My question is if Conan is personally angry at Jay Leno for all of this clusterf*ck, or is it something he solely blames the NBC network for?

I had the feeling that Conan and Jay truly liked each other and had a lot of respect for one another.

Is that all now down the drain?

Does Conan O’Brian hate Jay Leno?

In answer, there’s this news: Leno is thinking of leaving NBC because of the way they treated Conan and he doesn’t like the fact that it makes him look like the bad guy.

I think both Jay and Conan blame it all on NBC.

That is quite interesting, RealityChuck—Thank you!!!

I think Conan is not personally blaming Leno, judging by his monolouge last night, but of course I dont know what is going on in anyone’s head.

NBC is certainly making a shitaree out of this whole business, and as I said, while I dont find either Leno or Conan very entertaining these days, I think both are probably pretty decent people in their personal lives, who deserve (especially Conan, who, as has been pointed out, turned down other, better offers and stayed loyal to NBC) better than the network has behaved.

ETA
I think Leno should walk, or many in the public will blame him (rightly or wrongly) personally for much of this BS.

I think it would be similar to anyone, anywhere, at any job, where one person gets passed up for a promtion to another worker. You don’t hate the other guy, but you can’t help but wonder if he weren’t around would you have gotten it?

The whole mess was due to the fact that, in order to keep Conan several years ago, they promised him Tonight. They probably thought that by then Jay would be tired of doing it and willing to step down.

But when the time came, Leno was still doing well in the ratings, and didn’t want to step down.

Now NBC had to find a way to get Conan on Tonight. They scrambled and decided that the five-nights-a-week gig would be good for Leno. In a sense, they were right – they were making money on the show even with poor ratings since production costs were so low. But the low ratings pissed off the affiliates, who wanted something stronger to lead into their newscasts.

Now NBC has the worst possible situation: scrambling to find programming to fill the 10:00 slot, and possibly losing both Leno and Conan and thus having no one to host Tonight.

I suppose you could blame Leno a bit for not wanting to step down, but he loved doing the show (and NBC knew he loved doing the show), so that’s no surprise, even when they made their promises to Conan.

But Leno shouldn’t be blamed for being put back into the 11:30 slot and displacing Conan – that was entirely a network decision.

NBC tried to have their cake and eat it. And right now, they have a moldy cake covered with ants.

Tonight Conan had a joke where he said “Kids you can do anything you want, so long as Jay Leno doesn’t want it.”
Take that for what it’s worth.

Okay, it took me a second to realize the thread title was talking about Conan O’Brien.

I was picturing Jay Leno in a death match with a giant barbarian.

“Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to sit upon the mock leather couch at NBC and ask his guests about their new projects.”

Conan seems to be one who worships at the altar of the Tonight Show. It has been his goal forever, and I can understand it. There was a time that being on “The Tonight Show,” and especially getting invited to sit on the couch after your bit, was as high as a comedian could aspire. Guys like Conan, with astronomical aspirations, are heroes to the rest of us who know we can never get on the show. And today? Conan’s email at his new show will be empty. All the better to call attention to oneself!

To save NBC’s bacon Jay is being force-fit, though not entirely against his will as he shared Conan’s goal, back into the 11:35 slot, of making lots of money. Were I Conan I’d be hard pressed between his contracted money from NBC vs having to work for the next few years. I’d take the former. He’s a big name because he’ll take the latter.

A half hour is what Jay delivers before his first guest, but eliminates the second half hour and negates any claim that he’s anything beyond a funnyman. It was probably unsatisfactory for him, but he’ll take the dough. OTOH, the world is sick of comedians who wish they could direct. Or conduct interviews. Jay may be the King of Softballs, but he knows he can throw them and, apparently, NBC is happy with them.

Conan, OTOH, doesn’t aim for the jugular when a guest falters, but seems lose focus. He may be Too Nice.

I don’t watch Jimmy Kimmel but according to the description in the OP it sounds to me like KIMMEL is the one that hates Jay Leno!

Apparently from his monolouge last night, Jimmy Kimmel (after basically telling the world that he thinks Jay Leno is an arrogant asshole) claims that he has been invited on Leno’s show tomorrow.

I dont think he was joking, (about being invited on Leno’s show) but I may have been wooshed…

After a little more reading, it seems that there is indeed some bad feelings between Conan and Jay, probably more pronounced on Conan’s part, which is pretty understandable from my POV.

I haven’t seen Kimmel’s show recently (I did see a photo of him dressed up as Leno, which I thought was very funny) but I doubt if he’s really mad at Leno. During the writer’s strike a couple years ago, didn’t they appear as guests on each other’s show? I saw Leno on Kimmel’s show and thought it was very interesting. Leno let down his hair and told a couple of hilariously funny stories - which I can’t recall now - poking fun at himself and about behind the scenes stuff at the Tonight Show.

No cite, but I know people who have worked for both Conan and Jay and by all accounts they are two of the nicest people in the business (at least to other industry people. Not sure what kind of toll those schedules take on their families).

OK now Leno and Conan are getting great ratings. Hmmmm

Anyone want to say “publicity stunt” ?

LOL :smiley:

Wait–you think they are going to bring back “Tonight Show Classic”!?!?

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, yes, there is bad blood between Leno and Conan. Leno has been dismissive of O’Brien, feeling that Conan has not worked hard enough to deserve the Tonight Show, basically coasting by on his writing stints on SNL and the Simpsons. Conan, for his part, has never been a fan of Leno’s humor, and O’Brien really feels that Leno is stabbing him in the back with his willingness to move back to 10:35, with or without taking back the Tonight Shao.

Conan did say some nice things about Leno on his last episode of Late Night, but he had more to say about David Letterman, for one - that gave me the impression he and Leno weren’t particularly close. And if there weren’t any hard feelings between them before this started, there almost have to be some by now.

Oh, I’m sure that they see each other as a big threat.

The biggest problem, IMO, is that “The Tonight Show” has had a very long history and a certain vanilla flavor to it that NBC doesn’t want to jack around with. Neither O’Brien nor Letterman are well-suited to be host because they don’t have the right personality for it.

But neither realizes it.

I mean Wimbledon is a long revered tennis institution. It’s la creme de la creme in tennis. Unfortunately, some really talented tennis players will never win there because their game isn’t suited for grass. That doesn’t make them bad players or uninteresting players or untalented players. Nonetheless some will still live their whole life being disappointed that they didn’t win there.

Leno actually did have the right personality. He’s nice enough to be accessible to most people and edgy enough to make fun without being offensive. But by the time he got into his groove, NBC had already promised the job to O’Brien, probably with Leno’s full knowledge and consent.

Personally, I think they should all three pack up and move to Fox. It would serve NBC right for doing such bone-headed things.

You do realize that Letterman works for CBS, not NBC?

>Leno has been dismissive of O’Brien, feeling that Conan has not worked hard enough to deserve the Tonight Show, basically coasting by on his writing stints on SNL and the Simpsons.

Wow, thats crazy. Before the tonight show Leno was little more than a hack standup. Conan has had a talk show for 15 years prior to moving. If anyone hasnt paid his dues, its Leno.

It seems lately the press and celebrities have been mentioning Leno as the problem, when before they have been avoiding it. Im guessing he’s not so innocent and will be more than willing to take Conan’s slot. I doubt NBC would go public with its decision if he already hasnt agreed to do so.

Leno was the permanent guest host for Carson for 5 years before taking over full time in 92.

Conan is the oldest guy ever named Tonight show host, and he’s the only one who had his own talk show before Tonight.