# Is there personal bad blood between Conan and Jay Leno? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 13, 2010, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-personal-bad-blood-between-conan-and-jay-leno/524801 "2010-01-13T17:39:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-personal-bad-blood-between-conan-and-jay-leno/524801/21 "2010-01-15T15:09:48Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > 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. Is there an option where Conan goes back to writing for _The Simpsons_? ---
**Author:** ![HorseloverFat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8e8cbc/32.png) [@HorseloverFat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HorseloverFat)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-personal-bad-blood-between-conan-and-jay-leno/524801/22 "2010-01-15T15:11:07Z")
Big deal, he filled in for Johnny. He essentially had to babysit a well-oiled machine setup by his betters. Even Joan Rivers was able to do that. Conan had to run his own show from scratch, make executive decisions, set the tone of the show, write comedy, perform, etc. Leno was far, far less experienced in television when he took over. He was more known for being the “Cool Ranch Doritos” guy than anything else. ---
**Author:** ![tumbleddown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tumbleddown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tumbleddown)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-personal-bad-blood-between-conan-and-jay-leno/524801/23 "2010-01-15T15:19:50Z")
> [@PunditLisa](#): > > 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. Conan was promised the job in 2004. Leno took over The Tonight Show in 1992. Are you saying that it took Leno more than 12 years to get “into his groove”? And this is the guy that the network is (or should be) pinning its late night plan on? ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-personal-bad-blood-between-conan-and-jay-leno/524801/24 "2010-01-15T15:25:09Z")
I don’t agree at all, but the article says Leno didn’t think Conan was qualified to get the Late night slot in 93, not that he wasn’t qualified to get Tonight in 09. I remember back in 93 there was a lot of surprise when he was picked since Conan was an unknown, he was only a writer before that. I think it was Lorne Michaels that really picked him. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-personal-bad-blood-between-conan-and-jay-leno/524801/25 "2010-01-15T20:09:44Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > You do realize that Letterman works for CBS, not NBC? Yes. I suppose it’s too much to ask that Letterman screw over CBS in retaliation for NBC screwing him around years earlier. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-personal-bad-blood-between-conan-and-jay-leno/524801/26 "2010-01-15T20:23:23Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Conan is the oldest guy ever named Tonight show host, and he’s the only one who had his own talk show before Tonight. Next month Leno will be the oldest guy ever named _Tonight Show_ host, and he’ll have had \*two \*talk shows before. (Also, more seriously, Johnny Carson had hosted a variety show before, which I’m pretty sure included a monologue). ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-personal-bad-blood-between-conan-and-jay-leno/524801/27 "2010-01-15T20:29:35Z")
Carson also hosted a game show before he took over Tonight. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-personal-bad-blood-between-conan-and-jay-leno/524801/28 "2010-01-15T21:25:59Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > I don’t agree at all, but the article says Leno didn’t think Conan was qualified to get the Late night slot in 93, not that he wasn’t qualified to get Tonight in 09. Um, the article says > [@](#): > > A longtime Leno associate says, ‘‘Jay has always been skeptical of Conan, the Harvard-educated kid from an upper-middle-class background who basically parlayed his writing stints on ‘The Simpsons’ and ‘Saturday Night Live’ into one of the most coveted TV hosting jobs in the world.’’ I read “one of the most coveted TV hosting jobs in the world” to mean the Tonight Show, and not Late Night. And who knows, Leno could have felt that way in 2004 when the original announcement was made that O’Brien would take over “Tonight.” ---
**Author:** ![Dignan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f07891/32.png) [@Dignan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dignan)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2010, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-personal-bad-blood-between-conan-and-jay-leno/524801/29 "2010-01-17T22:24:30Z")
Throughout this whole debacle I’ve wondered in the back of my mind how much of a “New Coke” situation was happening. I’m not sure how they could resolve something like that, and the solution is definitely not as easy as just bringing back the original recipe (i.e. Jay, who I’ve never been a fan of). I don’t think Kimmel likes Leno. He’s a Letterman fan, and his Leno impression for his whole show annihilated Jay. I know I don’t think Jay is funny, but sometimes it takes something like Kimmel’s performance to really illustrate what it is I don’t like about Leno (the constant banter with the band, the band punctuating every “joke”). Does anyone else remember when Kimmel’s show was getting ready to go on the air? Kimmel said in an interview what his show would be like, and said something along the lines of “It will be like the Tonight Show, but funny.” Bill Simmons (ESPN’s Sports Guy) was a writer on Kimmel’s show when he started, and has said either in a recent column (which seems unlikely since he hardly writes anymore), or a podcast to one of his friends that no one knows (which is probably where I heard it) that when Kimmel’s show started, The Tonight Show people made it clear that if someone pushing a movie/show/project appeared on Kimmel first, then they shouldn’t expect to get to be on The Tonight Show. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2010, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-personal-bad-blood-between-conan-and-jay-leno/524801/30 "2010-01-18T02:54:20Z")
> [@Dignan](#): > > Bill Simmons (ESPN’s Sports Guy) was a writer on Kimmel’s show when he started, and has said either in a recent column (which seems unlikely since he hardly writes anymore), or a podcast to one of his friends that no one knows (which is probably where I heard it) that when Kimmel’s show started, The Tonight Show people made it clear that if someone pushing a movie/show/project appeared on Kimmel first, then they shouldn’t expect to get to be on The Tonight Show. I don’t know about Kimmel, but [that was reportedly one of the dirty tricks Helen Kushnik pulled](http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,311989,00.html)when she was running _The Tonight Show._ But Kushnik was fired in 1994 and supposedly Leno and his producer, Debbie Vickers, put an end to it. ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-personal-bad-blood-between-conan-and-jay-leno/524801/31 "2010-01-19T04:27:12Z")
After watching Jay Leno explain his take on the situation at NBC on his show tonight, I think it’s pretty apparent that there was never a real friendship between Conan and Jay to begin with, and now I have to imagine that Conan probably feels that Leno is doing what he can to push Conan out the door (which may well actually be the case). The way Leno talked about Conan (“he’s a nice guy, but it’s a business driven by ratings”) it is clear to me that Leno is not too worried abut losing a deep bond with Conan O"Brian… ---
**Author:** ![BMada](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/96bed5/32.png) [@BMada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMada)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-personal-bad-blood-between-conan-and-jay-leno/524801/32 "2010-01-19T05:14:47Z")
there’s a lot of bad blood with Jay Leno, but Conan’s hasn’t been overt. Letterman, Howard Stern and Rosie O’Donnell. part 1 [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ2fZH2XqNw&feature=related](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ2fZH2XqNw&feature=related) part 2 [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJVH6SzYRlk&feature=related](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJVH6SzYRlk&feature=related) ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Jon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bb73d2/32.png) [@Evil\_Jon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Jon)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-personal-bad-blood-between-conan-and-jay-leno/524801/33 "2010-01-19T06:25:15Z")
> [@BMada](#): > > there’s a lot of bad blood with Jay Leno, but Conan’s hasn’t been overt. > > Letterman, > > Howard Stern > > and Rosie O’Donnell. > > part 1 [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ2fZH2XqNw&feature=related](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ2fZH2XqNw&feature=related) > part 2 [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJVH6SzYRlk&feature=related](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJVH6SzYRlk&feature=related) Oh those are good. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-personal-bad-blood-between-conan-and-jay-leno/524801/34 "2010-01-19T14:30:26Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > After watching Jay Leno explain his take on the situation at NBC on his show tonight, **I think it’s pretty apparent that there was never a real friendship between Conan and Jay to begin with** , and now I have to imagine that Conan probably feels that Leno is doing what he can to push Conan out the door (which may well actually be the case). > > The way Leno talked about Conan (“he’s a nice guy, but it’s a business driven by ratings”) it is clear to me that Leno is not too worried abut losing a deep bond with Conan O"Brian… Why would there be? They spent years working from opposite coasts. There’s a 13 year age difference. They come from different backgrounds (Conan, TV writing and Jay, stand-up comedy). There’s not much reason to believe that they would be very close. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-personal-bad-blood-between-conan-and-jay-leno/524801/35 "2010-01-19T14:37:24Z")
I’m just waiting for the \*Law & Order \*episode. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-personal-bad-blood-between-conan-and-jay-leno/524801/36 "2010-01-19T15:27:36Z")
> [@JKilez](#): > > Wait–you think they are going to bring back “Tonight Show _Classic_”!?!? I don’t think Johnny and Ed are available. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-personal-bad-blood-between-conan-and-jay-leno/524801/37 "2010-01-19T16:25:42Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > I don’t think Johnny and Ed are available. ☹ If they just ran _old_ Carson episodes five nights a week they’d get better ratings than Leno was getting before this whole kerfuffle started. After all, that was when the Tonight Show was actually funny. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-personal-bad-blood-between-conan-and-jay-leno/524801/38 "2010-01-19T18:48:43Z")
As long as they let Craig Ferguson keep doing what Craig Ferguson does, I’m happy. ---
**Author:** ![Eternal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@Eternal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eternal)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-personal-bad-blood-between-conan-and-jay-leno/524801/39 "2010-01-20T14:27:01Z")
How couldn’t there be bad blood between all these guys? Firstly they’re competitors and secondly they’re professional funnymen -a group in which arrogance and bitterness is over-represented and is practically a job requirement. ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-personal-bad-blood-between-conan-and-jay-leno/524801/40 "2010-01-20T19:20:17Z")
I’ve never found Leno or Conan to be very funny. I laugh at Leno’s headlines, but they’d be funny if anybody read them. I cringe when he does the schtick where he finds stupid people and asks them simple questions they get wrong to make them look stupider. He’s mean. Kimmel’s also pretty mean, but sometimes funny. Love Letterman, but he’s past his prime & the adultery scandal just seems to have taken some of the wind out of his sails. Love, love Craig Ferguson. and Jimmy Fallon is surprisingly good, very creative. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-personal-bad-blood-between-conan-and-jay-leno/524801.md?page=1)