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.

The Late Show with David Letterman is counter programming in coming weeks with scheduled guests Jerry Seinfeld, Matt Damon, Tom Brokaw and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. Seinfeld, who is a friend of Leno’s and promoting his new NBC show The Marriage Ref will appear on CBS’s The Late Show the first week Leno is back in action.

More controversy was stoked when it was announced on February 16 that Kevin Eubanks, bandleader of Leno’s Tonight Show and his primetime show The Jay Leno Show, is leaving as bandleader soon after the The Tonight Show resumes production.

The Tonight Show’s star-studded line-up for March should gain interest from viewers. The question is will the bad publicity from what some viewers may see as removing O’Brien to replace him with previous Tonight Show host Leno be forgotten that easily? Time and ratings will tell the story.

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:

WINFREY: When they came into your office, they, NBC executives, come to your office, your show is number one in nighttime and tell you that you’re going to be moving out in five years, what is your first reaction to that?
Mr. LENO: It broke my heart. It really did. I was devastated. This is the job that I always wanted and it was the only job that ever mattered in show business to me. It’s the job every comic aspires to…

WINFREY: So in your mind this happened or that move happened, because Conan wanted that spot?
Mr. LENO: Yeah…

WINFREY: When the numbers started to drop, was your ego bruised by that? Because you’re used to being number one.
Mr. LENO: I wouldn’t say my ego was bruised. I felt bad for everybody on the show and I felt bad for our affiliates. A couple weeks ago I called the head of the affiliate board and I said listen, they’re the ones that canceled us, and I said, “I’m sorry I let you guys down. I mean, you guys supported us, you went along with the decision. I’m sorry our show wasn’t successful for you.”
WINFREY: Because if it had worked, it would have saved millions of dollars.
Mr. LENO: Yeah. Yeah. Actually, the odd thing is, it was making money for the network, it wasn’t for the affiliates.
WINFREY: The other side of that, many people say that your going into prime time five nights a week, it took away thousands of jobs from other people who would have been working on dramas…
Mr. LENO: I’ve got to admit, that was not something I even realized until we went on the air. But they’re not wrong. I have to admit, that one did catch me. We were on the air when I realized, wow, I have to admit, that one I didn’t know about that…

WINFREY: Had Conan’s numbers been higher, you’d have never been asked to go back to take the time slot?
Mr. LENO: I never expected this to happen. People think you’re behind the scenes pulling strings. There’s no strings to pull. I have a show that’s been canceled. So why would I have any power to go, oh, I want that? What happened was NBC came to me and they said, “Look, your show was down 14%, Conan’s show was down 49%. We have a plan. We want to keep you both” because I asked, I said, “Can I be released from my contract?” And they said no.
WINFREY: This was your contract on the prime time show?
Mr. LENO: On the prime time show.
WINFREY: When did you ask that, Jay?
Mr. LENO: I asked maybe a day after we got canceled. And I said, “Well, can I move on?” “No, you’re still a valuable asset.” I said, “You fired me twice, how valuable can I be as an asset?” “Oh, no, we want to keep you.” I said okay. And they said, “Here’s our plan…

WINFREY: Was there any part of you that thought, “You know, let me think about this. Let me have a conversation with Conan. Let me see if Conan wants to take the hour?” Was there any part of you that thought, “You know what? I’ve already done that enough let’s move on.”
Mr. LENO: Actually, it wasn’t my place to call Conan and say, you know, they made this offer to me, and I said, “Do you think Conan will go for this?” and they said, “We’ll ask him tomorrow.” I said, “Okay, let me know what happens.” And then the next thing you know, I guess Conan had his article in the paper and that was that.
WINFREY: Yeah. Conan said he thought it would be destructive to the franchise and that if he took that spot…
Mr. LENO: Well, if you look at what the ratings were, it was already destructive to the franchise…

WINFREY: Have you talked to Conan in person throughout all this?
Mr. LENO: No, I haven’t.
WINFREY: Did you want to pick up the phone?
Mr. LENO: Yeah, but it didn’t seem appropriate.
WINFREY: Why?
Mr. LENO: I don’t know. I think let things cool down and maybe we’ll talk, you know…

Read the full transcript of the Oprah/Leno interview at Deadline Hollywood