Oprah Interviews Jay Leno On Tonight Show Controversy
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:
