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Jay Leno takes on The Tonight Show’s hosting duties again on March 1st. NBC is pushing top name stars and atheletes to kick-start the show with Leno to combat bad publicity. The cancellation of Leno’s primetime show, The Jay Leno Show, and subsequent disaster moving The Tonight Show’s timeslot in order to keep both Leno and Conan O’Brien on the roster, only to lose O’Brien in the process, had long time viewers complaining and fans of O’Brien protesting NBC’s actions.

Leno’s guests for the premiere week of The Tonight Show include former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, gold medal Olympians Apolo Anton Ohno, Shaun White and Lindsey Vonn, American Idol singer Adam Lambert, the cast of MTV’s Jersey Shore, country singer Brad Paisley and American Idol judge Simon Cowell. Leno’s upcoming guests in the following weeks include Morgan Freeman, Kim Kardashian, Jamie Foxx and Dakota Fanning.

The controversy surrounding the cast of MTV’s Jersey Shore and recent comments by American Idol judge Simon Cowell should intrigue viewers and provide some colorful moments during the first week of the show. The combination of Sarah Palin and Adam Lambert booked on the same night, along with the fact that Palin’s first interview on a late-night talk show is the rival to David Letterman’s show, with whom Palin has feuded with in the past, might pique viewer interest. This could be good programming or clever fanning of the flames to gain viewership from bad PR that might result in lower ratings than competitor Letterman’s show.

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NBC appears to be in damage control after the Leno/O’Brien Tonight Show controversy. Leno provided an hour long interview Thursday on his side of the story regarding the changes at The Tonight Show and cancellation of his primetime one hour show on NBC. Winfrey had a long list of pointed questions to ask Leno, some apparently not easy for him to answer. Leno made it clear NBC screwed up and that he must take some time to improve his image since signing on to replace Conan O’Brien as host of The Tonight Show. Much of the interview centered around Leno’s side of the story, making him appear at times to be an uninvolved party in the NBC decision. At other times Leno’s focus seemed to be on the business and ratings side of television, giving the impression, emotions aside, it’s just business and this happens all the time in the television industry. Winfrey mentioned polls on the Tonight Show controversy on the Oprah Winfrey website skewed in favor of O’Brien approximately 80% to 20%.

At the end of the Leno interview Winfrey made it clear O’Brien was also invited for a interview to reveal his side of things. O’Brien’s people stated now was not the right time for an interview. Winfrey left the invitation for O’Brien open whenever the time was right for an interview on her show. From the Leno interview and conversations online it looks like Leno and NBC have some work to do to smooth over the past few weeks controversy and get back on the road to high ratings on The Tonight Show when it begins to air with Leno as host starting March 1.

Later in the evening on ABC, Jimmy Kimmel’s monologue revealed an irked Kimmel commenting on Leno’s statement Kimmel “sucker-punched” him on Leno’s 10 at 10 segment during the Oprah interview. Kimmel seemed none too pleased over being shown as a bad guy by Leno in the Oprah interview since most comics would joke about the situation, being news of the day. Kimmel then proceeded to show an edited clip of Leno’s interview complete with R.E.M.’s “Everybody Hurts”, meant to skewer Leno.

Read portions of the Oprah/Leno interview transcript:

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The final week of The Tonight Show hosted by Conan O’Brien was extremely entertaining and plain good television. Guests during the week were Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Robin Williams and Adam Sandler. Surprise guests during the week included Ben Stiller and Pee Wee Herman in comedy skits centered on O’Brien’s departure from The tonight show. Conan O’Brien’s final show on Friday was geared up to be a fun one. Conan was treated to a surprise visit by Steve Carell who proceeded to do an exit interview with Conan for NBC. Conan was in hysterics by the time Carell finished his interview and the audience was revved up for the rest of the show.

During the week Conan had a bit about being vindictive and charging whatever he could to The Tonight Show, with NBC unable to do anything about it. The first expensive item featured during the week was a Bugatti Veyron car dressed up in mouse ears while an original recording of the song “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” by The Rolling Stones played in the background. O’Brien claimed the car and the cost of playing the original song would cost NBC $1.5 million. The second expensive item was the purchase of 2009 Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird, with the racehorse wearing a mink Snuggie while watching restricted Super Bowl footage. O’Brien claimed this hijink cost NBC $4.8 million. Conan showed the final expensive item on Friday night: a credit card purchased skeleton of a ground sloth from the Smithsonian institution, spraying Beluga caviar spraying through a hose on to an original Picasso, costing $65 million dollars paid for by NBC. Conan then made sure the audience knew the expensive buys at NBC’s expense was a joke all along.

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Conan O’Brien issued an official press release statement today saying he will not accept the move of the Tonight Show to a 12:05 p.m. slot NBC planned in order to bring back Jay Leno as the Tonight Show’s lead in at 11:35 p.m. after the cancellation of Leno’s prime time show.

O’Brien has been faced with making a decision following NBC’s plan to cancel Jay Leno’s primetime show and move Leno back to his late night position. The change cuts Jay Leno’s time to a half hour as a lead in for The Tonight Show, moving The Tonight Show to 12:05 p.m. start time. Rumblings from both Leno and O’Brien camps as well as the late night hosts humorous jabs at NBC are adding to the late night drama.

As you would expect from O’Brien, his press release includes good humor, graciousness in the face of a bad situation and his concerns about the welfare of The Tonight Show’s legacy show what a class act he is.

Read Conan O’Brien’s Press Release

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Late, Late show host Craig Ferguson marked his 1,000th show by not appearing as the host. The 1,000th show was hosted by popular puppet Wavy (aka Wavy Rancheros) who is voiced by Ferguson. Imagine spending the entire time hosting the show below camera level or under your host desk. Ferguson did just that last night to roars of approval from the audience. Wavy hosted the show from monologue to interviewing guests, with guest puppets dancing in the background and a shark puppet starring in the Aquaman skit Ferguson usually stars in. Wavy has his own fan club with show viewers, famous for the wave of his hand (hence his name) and southern drawl. Wavy has admitted on numerous occasions that he is not sure if he is a crocodile or alligator. Wavy’s guests last night were Jason Schwartzman, Maria Bello and Kristen Bell. The tables were turned on Wavy when with perfect timing Schwartzman began interviewing Wavy, asking him about his life as a reptile. Maria Bello flirted with Wavy during her interview and ended up making out with the puppet. Jason Segel made a cameo voicing a Dracula puppet performing “Dracula’s Lament”.

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