The Blemish

Everyone hates Jay Leno

By , 8:26 AM on Jan 29, 2010, 10 Comments

sat down with and Oprah was disappointed. Oprah basically said America hates Jay and thinks he’s a selfish asshole who screwed Conan O’Brien out of the Tonight Show gig. Jay’s response was that it all comes down to numbers and that neither Conan nor Jay had them. What Jay glossed over was the fact that he was giving Conan a crappy lead-in unlike the much better news lead-in he had. One could even argue Jay sabotaged Conan. Maybe he planned it all along. Jay seemed bitter at being forced into retirement. He also said he “thought” Conan was going to take the deal to move back half an hour later without even confirming with Conan.

Anyway, Jay comes off as a sneaky rat in the interview. The only way this could get worse is if when Oprah turned her back to get a glass of water, Jay pushed her over in her chair and took over the show. Part 2 & 3 under the cut.

Tags: # # #
Or from other sites

Editor's Web Picks

  • Sean

    Super Douche! JAY won’t have good ratings and when Conan returns its a Fcukn Rap!!!!

  • Lucabrasi

    CONAN SUCKS BIGTIME AND LENO RULES!!!!!!!!

  • JayFan

    Did we see the same show? Oprah said she supported Jay and didn’t see him as the villain in this matter. She said she was surprised there was so much anti-Jay sentiment in her polls.

    I thought he came across as very sympathetic; NBC gave Conan a choice to keep his show and move it back 30 minutes. He threw a hissy fit and lost the Tonight show for himself and his staff. I can’t understand the outrage at Leno. I will definitely be watching his show.

  • ConanFan

    Jay is SCUM! What kind of LOSER is this guy?? You had MULTIPLE chances to tell NBC you didn’t want to leave the Tonight Show, but you DIDN’T, you RETIRED, then sabotaged Conan with your LAME 10:00 PM show. What chance did the poor guy have? You are a SELFISH BASTARD, and EVERYONE knows it. I can’t believe I used to actually watch your show. Me (and everyone I know) says that they’ll never watch again. I know you aren’t, but you SHOULD be ASHAMED of yourself. THIS is what you’ll now be remembered for, FOREVER. Nice job, dummy.

  • John

    It amuses me when Team Coco people blame Leno for everything. As Bill Carter at the New York Times points out (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/25/business/media/25conan.html) Conan was losing to Letterman after only a month on the air. (So he was on a three month losing streak when Leno’s show showed up.)

    Carter also shows that Conan not only lost almost half of Leno’s total viewership, he lost in all demos that Leno once held. Even in the much touted 18-34 demo Conan was drawing in 40K fewer viewers than Leno. Not only that but Conan was losing the 18-34 demo to Stephen Colbert.

    Conan was losing very badly in the ratings game.

    Team Coco then tries to blame Leno’s weak lead-in. Again they ignore the facts. For the past few years NBC’s prime time has been in the toilet, yet Leno kept winning the late night ratings game against Letterman.

    Or Team Coco will say that Conan didn’t have time to build up an audience. For that, I have to ask what Conan was doing for the past 17 years at 12:35AM. He was hosting a late night talk show.

    Conan got a shot at hosting The Tonight Show and stunk it up. Leno got a shot at a prime time show and stunk it up. So NBC canceled Leno and had two late night talk show hosts on their hands. They had to choose between the #1 rated talk show host (Leno) and the #3 rated talk show host (Conan).

    It sucks to be Conan but he shares a lot of the blame for what happened.