Has anyone found the hour long Leno interview on Oprah?
I found a 4 min clip on Oprah’s site and that’s it.
Maybe youtube? To tell you the truth, I missed it on the regular time and was up late (1 a.m.) when it repeats. I started watching and lasted maybe 10 minutes. Bored/tired and went to bed. In order words, I don’t think you missed much… 
A summary
http://blogs.newsobserver.com/tv/jay-talks-to-oprah-am-i-not-a-good-guy
In case you can’t tell, the writer of this blog is not a Leno fan
That’s the main reason I wanted to hear the interview. I’d like to hear Jay’s side and decide for myself.
I’m not a huge fan of either Jay Leno or Conan O’Brien, though I’ve watched and enjoyed their shows in small doses, from time to time.
I don’t know either Jay or Conan, but is ANYBODY really surprised to see that Jay Leno plays hardball, or that he’ll throw other people under the bus to get what he wants?
He played hardball with former friends like Arsenio Hall and Dennis Miller, threatening celebs who thought about appearing on their shows. Yeah, I know, he blamed it all on his old manager, Helen Kushnick, but Helen is long gone, and we see now that Jay is STILL looking out for Number One.
And there’s nothing wrong with that, in my book. If he feels he has to battle to get what he wants, and will betray friends and colleagues to get it, well, that’s show biz.
But he doesn’t get to keep pretending he’s a nice guy.
I’ve always heard Jay say he does not spend his Tonight Show money and lives of his stand up comedy.
Is that known for sure? I mean, he has so much money and so many cars, even George Carlin, who lived until 70 and did comedy shows continually wouldn’t have that much. Right?
I couldn’t find a video, but I found what appears to be the complete transcript.
Leno still does a lot of stand up so he makes good money from that. Also he might be able to partly live off investments without using his TV money.
I believe some of the cars he buys he fixes up and sells to buy other cars. He has no kids and I think he has lived in the same house for a long time instead of always buying bigger ones.
Without seeing his bank records I guess we can’t really know if he lives off just stand up money.
Leno does shows every weekend, so estimate 3-5 shows times 50. He probably makes $100,000 per show. Even $10 million a year for 20 years puts him in the super rich category.
So he buys a collectible car averaging $100,000 every month. That’s one show. A drop in the bucket.
I watched the whole thing, and Leno came across as defensive but peculiarly unclear about why people are so outraged by his actions. “I could’ve retired, but then 170 people would have been out of a job, so that would be selfish!” WTF?
Hasn’t been mentioned much lately but when he went to 10 PM many Hollywood people were mad because he took 5 hours of scripted shows off the air. (NBC took those shows off the air, but Leno gets the blame) My guess is those people are part of the group who are still upset about his move back to Tonight.
Thanks! The transcript is just what I needed. 
I watched the entire interview, also. I don’t blame Leno for what happened, but he acted too naive – something like “I’m just a working guy, I take my orders from the big boss, same as anyone else.”
Oprah mentioned it, and Leno said he really hadn’t given the issue of the other shows much thought one way or another.
I think Oprah missed a golden opportunity to ask Leno “If, back in 1992, NBC had tried to keep both you and David Letterman by announcing you’d host the Tonight Show but it would be moved back a half-hour, and David Letterman would host a half-hour show before the Tonight Show, how would you have reacted?”
not to mention the fact that Jay Leno has been in this problem before with Letterman, he said he wanted to avoid another big “fight” for the Tonight Show. His sneaky way of doing things is what bothers me the most. If he hadn’t liked the idea of being replaced 5 years ago, why not voice that opinion rather than accept it? Being a company man isn’t really an acceptable reason. When shit happens with a person regarding one thing, doesn’t it sound reasonable to equate that one person to being the cause of the problem? I don’t think Jay Leno can act all naive being a long time personality in the talk show business. Maybe he could’ve gotten the benefit of the doubt with the Letterman thing but with Conan…
tvgawker’s point of view http://tv.gawker.com/5458843/jay-leno-tries-to-set-the-record-straight-on-oprah-comes-off-as-a-lying-victimized-cry+baby
I’m calling bs on this. I know that one of the places that he performs every weekend is the Hermosa Comedy and Magic Club in Hermosa Beach, CA, a little comedy club that can’t hold more than a few hundred people.
Pretty much what I expected.
Leno admits to telling “white lies” back when he first heard Conan was getting the show. I don’t blame him too much, since he still had to do the show, but it was unfair to Conan because who knows what Conan would have done if Leno had been truthful.
Oprah never asked the big question (IMO) which is “do you think you sabotaged Conan’s show by taking a show at 10?”
Leno notices that his show was getting all the press and Conan was left under the radar, but nobody connects the dots. I still think Conan could have succeeded if Leno had actually left.
I don’t know about there, but look at the prices for some of his other dates.
Event Date Venue Price Range
Jay Leno Tickets 2/13 2-13-2010
Saturday
8:00 PM The Borgata Event Center in Atlantic City, NJ $122 - $324
Jay Leno Tickets 2/26 2-26-2010
Friday
10:00 PM Terry Fator Theatre at the Mirage in Las Vegas, NV $142 - $236
Jay Leno Tickets 2/27 2-27-2010
Saturday
10:00 PM Terry Fator Theatre at the Mirage in Las Vegas, NV $142 - $236
Jay Leno Tickets 6/12 6-12-2010
Saturday
8:00 PM Agua Caliente Casino in Rancho Mirage, CA $206 - $283
@2minutes Howard Stern says something about Jay Leno doing a show at a club and takes $2000 cover charge from the door. Someone blogged it to Stern. Or listen to the whole thing, it’s about Leno on Oprah before the whole thing happened. How sick Stern is about people avoid hard questions and basically lobbing soft ones for guests.
I had my wife record it for me. He basically tries to cast his move as a business decision - Conan didn’t appear to be doing very well in the ratings, got canned and well, that’s just show business. They offered him back the Tonight Show and he figured it just made sense to jump at the chance. I agree with Kunilou though that he did seem pretty naive in thinking that the debacle wouldn’t blow up in everyone’s face.
:eek: Ignorance fought. Thanks EM.