During one part of Oprah’s interview with Jay Leno yesterday, Leno whined about the hilarious/uncomfortable incident two weeks ago on The Jay Leno show, where Kimmel basically ripped Leno a new one. Leno told Oprah: “I said, ‘No. Put it out there. I walked into it.’ You get right up again. You don’t whine and complain.” Leno said, whining and complaining. Anyway, unfortunately for Leno, Kimmel taped his show after the Oprah interview, so Kimmel had a lot to say about the whole thing (video below). Here are the basics from People Magazine:
Round Two!
Jay Leno told Oprah Winfrey on Thursday that he felt “sucker-punched” by Jimmy Kimmel – and hours later, the ABC comedian came out swinging again.
“[Leno] went on Oprah and rats me out,” Kimmel said during his Jimmy Kimmel Live! monologue Thursday night. “That’s a sucker-punch right there. You don’t go to Oprah and say that. He’s a tattle-tale.”
Kimmel added: “Oprah and I had a wonderful relationship, and now it’s ruined because of Jay.” (Click here to see Kimmel’s monologue.)
Kimmel, of course, was kidding. But in his sharp five-minute monologue, the comedian defended his recent appearance on The Jay Leno Show in which he let loose about shakeups at NBC that ultimately led to Leno reclaiming his post as the host of The Tonight Show and ousting Conan O’Brien in the process.
Explaining that Leno’s producers called him in advance to discuss the questions for the “10@10” segment, Kimmel says that he expected to be commenting on the late-night controversy, since it was newsy – and funny to him. Instead, Leno wanted to chat about other things like, Kimmel said, “What’s your junk food weakness?”
“I figured I’d start in, he’d get into it and we’d mix it up,” Kimmel said. “You know, at one time [Leno] was a comedian. But he didn’t do that. He stood there and he just kind of read through the questions like a robot.”
For his part, Leno told Winfrey that he was taken aback by Kimmel’s remarks but ultimately decided not to edit them out of his show. “I said, ‘No. Put it out there. I walked into it,’ ” Leno told her, explaining that when you get hit, “You get right up again. You don’t whine and complain.”
But at the end of his monologue Thursday night, Kimmel had the last laugh – for now. “Watch out Oprah,” he said, “don’t think he won’t take your show next.”
[From People]
Yeah… Kimmel didn’t really go after Leno the way he did to his face/chin. I actually think Kimmel pulled his punch a little, maybe? He could have been much harsher, although I did like the whole “You know, at one time [Leno] was a comedian…” thing. Because I’ve never known/lived through a time when Leno was funny. My only memories of him are as The Kind of Cheesy Middle-Ground Joke. Anyway, here’s the video from the incident:
I am in “live” Conan withdrawal. I’ll be watching Jon Stewart, followed by Colbert, followed by Kimmel, ending with Ferguson. I, too, do personal boycotts, and I’m sure there are viewers who have also had it “up to here” (chin) with Jay Leno.
You Jay haters ought to get a grip. He didn’t oust Conan. Conan’s ratings were so bad, people were watching infomercials instead. Conan was let go for ratings. And why wouldn’t Jay take the Tonight Show back. Good money and he was good at it. After all folks. There are more important things in the world then what we are going to watch at 11 p.m. at night isn’t there?
Damn it Jimmy Kimmel- I don’t want to like you. I really don’t… but I do.
“Fan” as an ex-programming exec, I can tell you the most profitable areas on the schedule for a station are the local news, 10PM has been dying a slow death for NBC affils for a while, Jay has hastened that decline. When your 6PM and/or 11PM news sinks particularly in a non political year you have trouble. Auto industry advertising has not yest come back and the Olympics will not make money for most affils. Affils were threatening to blow out the last hour of prime for local progamming, that is why the plug was plug on Jay. Conan also faced a decline, but so did Jay when he took over for Carson.
whatever Jimmy Kimmel. I can’t stand him, Conan or Letterman.
Jimmy ought to spend more time trying to be funny on his own show and less time jumping on the kick the nice guy while he’s down bandwagon. Piling on a guy is never attractive, especially when it’s a guy who seems pretty normal and nice. This whole mess should just calm down; these late night shows get fewer viewers than your average episode of Ugly Betty so who cares.
To Fan: ITAWU. The people who are so pissed over Conan getting let go, should have watch his show in the first place and if they did, then maybe his ratings wouldn’t have been so bad. I think that his ratings would have never gotten better. He is not that funny dude and who wants to stay up late at night to watch a unfunny guy.
Yes I am a Jay Leno fan and proud of it lol
WHY do people keep saying that the ONLY reason Conan was let go was because of ratings. Jay Leno’s 10 p.m. show did terribly in the ratings as well, and thus was canceled. It wasn’t given to someone else.
As others have mentioned before, and I will repeat, Conan wasn’t given a chance to increase his ratings without the terrible Leno Show lead in. I could understand ratings being used as the sole reason if Conan was allowed another year at it without the Leno Show at 10 p.m. and he (Conan) still sucked, but that just isn’t what happened.
Jay’s ratings were BAD when he started the Tonight show too, he never mentions that. It takes time to build an audience with any new show.
After getting a DVR and cruising Celbitchy all day I have no use for the late night talk show. Yeah Conan and Dave and Kimmel are cooler than Jay, but I don’t fault him for taking his old show when it was offered to him. How do they say?…… That’s show business.. and boohoo everyone involved is MEGA-RICH.. poor them
That said Kimmel’s barbs at Jay were super funny
Not a fan of his….at all. I miss Conan.
Conan was 8 months into his show and the ratings wasn’t improving. How many months or years do you want to give him? He was just bad; and now he is the poor victim and he will get another show and other network and people will watch his show and give him great ratings because they feel bad for him and want him to beat the evil evil Jay Leno lol
I was always on Conan’s side and thought Jeno was being selfish.
That said, it’s done, and like a poster above said, the guy has gotten crucified, and no point in kicking a horse while he’s down.
It might be about “numbers” after all.
Conan will be just fine.
I think that the personal attacks on Jay Leno are just wrong. I bet that if he start attacking Jimmy Kimmel and the others people will say that he is being nasty and mean etc, but it is okay for them to constantly attack him huh
@ alex – Maybe they should have given Conan the same number of months Jay got to improve his ratings when he took over as host?
That seems fair to me. Jay hasn’t always been number one. And the “people should have watched Conan then” argument can be made for Jay. His 10 p.m. show was canceled. So obviously he’s not that popular since he couldn’t pull in the ratings either.
Additionally, Leno doesn’t seem like a “nice” and “normal” guy to me. He has an a car collection most normal people could never afford. He also made a joke about how NBC could have handled it better if they killed everyone. And while I understand that it was said as a joke, it’s just not a funny or nice thing to say. But that’s just my opinion.
Team Conan. Nice job Jimmy…thanks for sticking to your guns!
Suck it Jay.
In what galaxy is Jay Leno a “nice guy”? I think the one thing most people have come to realize through this whole late-night debacle is that Jay Leno is not a “nice guy.” He’s ambitious to the point where he’ll backstab friends and coworkers (Letterman, and now Conan), he’s lied to paint a picture of himself as the victim, and his whole “comedy” schtick is to poke fun at people who are “beneath” him.
Yes, he can suck it.
Ok so if the 10:00 hours rating drop over 50% from where they were a year ago and then the 11:30 half drops up to 48% in alot of markets, that means the veiwership going into Conan was was approximately 2.86 million as opposed to the viewership going into Jays OLD show which would have been approximately 5.5 million and then jay retained approximately 5.2 of that viewership. Conan was not gived even close to the same chance Jay was and whose fault was that? Jay’s. Jay had a crap show at 10p which lead to drops across the board in primetime, news and late night. Late night viewership is mostly a matter of convenience. Viewers tend to stay where they watch the news. Jay comes across as a nice guy but he is not. He is ruthless in business and Conan did get the shaft. It amazes me too because Jay is the Honda Accord of comedy.
Are people just not remembering that he brought Letterman’s wife into this? That alone is the worst F**ckery that I’ve heard in quite some time. Leno can not dig himself out of that hole, even if he’s on Oprah every day for the next month. Ain’t no white washing that. So for that reason alone I’m done with Leno.
Leno sucks!!!
Bring back Coco!!!
Jay’s ratings were BAD when he started the Tonight show too, he never mentions that. It takes time to build an audience with any new show.
———–
Actually, he has mentioned that. And I really don’t understand why people think this is Jay’s fault. He doesn’t *&(*ing own NBC, he doesn’t call the shots. Truth is, no one was watching Conan’s show. I certainly wasn’t. He’ll do well on FOX, he’ll pick up the younger crowd. But there are people who love Jay and will continue to support him.
Leno is not funny. Who laughs at his lame ass jokes? “Minivan majority” to quote Lainey. Leno comes off as an a-hole. No wonder the only real celeb coming to his defense is fellow NBC darling and a-hole Jerry Seinfeld.
Jimmy Kimmel and Conan are the 2 least talented talk show hosts to ever exist. THEY ARE JEALOUS Jay gets the ratings he does- period. The fact is in the ratings.
Everyone is trying to blame Jay and time slot and a million other excuses for Conan failing when the fact is he isnt funny and the ratings prove it
Why are these grown men continuing to belittle Jay? Its over – Conan is out, Jay is in. Get a life and move on.
Jimmy Kimmel needs to give it a rest already. Oprah asked Jay about it, there was no way he “tattle taled.” Jimmy is just an idiot.
Good for Kimmel on calling out Jay. This suckerpunch claim is so bogus. Leno needs to fess up that he’s a greedy bastard.
AS IF the lot of you wouldnt do same thing as Jay for the $. Being greedy is Conan taking the payout he did for NOTHING. Conan could have kept his fans happy and staff employed simply by going to another time slot but he thought only of himself. This is best thing to ever happen to him financially and he knows it. I think Conan wanted the payout because he knew his ratings sucked.
Jimmy and Conan need to stop whining because they arent funny and have bad ratings.
Yeah, well maybe Conan’s ratings wouldn’t have sucked if Jay’s failure show wouldn’t have preceeded it. That’s what really killed his chances. Plus it took Jay almost 2 years before he won the ratings war on the Tonight Show, couldn’t they give Conan the same amount of time? This is a really pathetic legacy for Jay have…..
Jay’s ratings were in the tank!!! Obviously people aren’t interested in watching him anymore, it doesn’t matter what time he’s on. Pull the plug on this has-been!
Conan was given The Tonight Show and then they effectively amputated his leg up to his knee by putting Jay Leno on at 10pm doing a very similarly formatted show. Don’t tell me Jay didn’t understand the effect his show sucking would have on Conado’s ratings.
Zucker is to blame but Jay also has blood on his hands. I hope Conan lands a new network and the Tonight Show dies.
I’m with Alex and the Jay supporters. And I have a lot to say about this, but I’ll leave it at that. I’ll never watch Kimmel again after his juvenile passive-aggressive assaults–he’s mean-spirited and not a nice person.
Allie, you said it simply and perfectly: “Jimmy is just an idiot.”
If Jay Leno is so good, then the stations would not have threatened to boycott the show in the first place. Truth will be known when he comes back to the old time slot, I say he’ll tank and NBC will be watching two of their ex-funny men bring the ratings for the competition
Team Leno! Did Jimmy Kimmel offer two free nights of comedy to unemployed people in Detroit? Does Jimmy Kimmel host charity auctions for many different causes – without even talking about it? Has Jimmy Kimmel ever done anything for anybody? He has his audience – people who like pigs. He showed his true colors when he bashed the host of the show that was giving HIM air time. Jay was a gentleman about it and refused to have a pig fight. They should never have “promised” Conan The Tonight Show five years ago. You could tell back then it would never work. But Conan now has $45 million more than he did a week ago – let’s not cry about him.
I don’t get why you have such an abundance of late night talk shows in America. Doesn’t the format get stale when you have (had, hrmpf) Conan, Leno, Kimmel, Ferguson, Fallon, Letterman, Stewart…? There’s a limited amount of movies and albums released every month — the same celebrities everywhere yapping the same promotional crap on every show.
Yes, I understand every host has his personality and they all differ in “flavour”, but still? Is that enough for you to keep watching?
Leno is not funny. Conan didn’t get the ratings because his demographic is much younger, and watches a lot on DVR and/or online.
Jimmy’s a freakin’ sweetheart who called Leno’s conniving skank-ass out.
Leno having Jimmy on was to try to subtly align himself “back in” with the other hosts, he tried to use Jimmy -BACKFIRE.
Same for Leno’s pathetic stint on Oprah -all to try to re-garner the mainstream audience -and CONvince them he’s a “good” guy.
Jay can’t cut it with the public and he doesn’t cut it with his peers in late-night -nobody knows the scumbaggery Jay did better than the other late-night hosts-and they called his ass OUT.
Kimmel was probably hoping one day for a shot at Johnnie’s old post – so this makes Jimmy quite a stand-up guy, a real friend, a good person -he risked that to speak up, out and against the scumbaggery.
And he didn’t sucker punch anyone -that’s a coward’s claim … Jimmy faced him and said what he said -Jay was right there and could have responded in any way. He took the coward’s path, he wasn’t sucker punched. Plus, Jay’s show knew Jimmy wanted to talk about it. Jay’s a con artist (and a s#itty one at that).
Jay knew he couldn’t edit Kimmel’s appearance, it’d have leaked anyway -so Jay’s attempt at trying to appear “noble” (for leaving it unedited) was a FARCE -as with everything else he’s asserting.
It was reported if Jay were to “retire”, his pay out from NBC would have been 150million. That’s why they got rid of Jay plus Jay’s show was taking out the affiliates’ ads/news. Jay chose to blame Conan instead of himself. Frankly, Jay blamed everyone but himself. He also had no clue of all the lost jobs of writers/actors/crew at the 10pm drama slot on NBC so they could make room for Jay. Come on, it was all over the place at the time. Even Oprah didn’t believe that lie. He also told his Letterman wife joke more than once, “sucker punch” and lied again to Oprah. Yo~~ Kimmel, Conan and Letterman! Ferguson’s my man!
*that’s why they got rid of Conan. Sorry it is late.
Lots of Jay supporters here. Funny they didn’t show up until now. I smell damage control.
if ratings proved that conan isn’t funny and that’s why he failed, then what about jay? jay’s ratings were bad as well. so wouldn’t you say he failed as well?
it took jay YEARS before he brought in ratings, but conan only gets seven months to sink or swim? how fair is that?
conan AND his staff got $45, not just conan.
leno basically pushed out carson, letterman, and now conan. yeah, he’s such a nice guy. i don’t know anyone who is “nice” and “normal” that would hide in a closet and eavesdrop on a meeting.
http://www.nytimes.com/1994/01/30/magazine/behind-the-headlines-in-the-leno-letterman-war.html?pagewanted=7
Team anyone but Leno.
Among these 3, Conan is the only one I find really funny.
Kimmel is such a whiner. The only thing funny he’s ever done was in rebuttal to his ex-gf’s (or are they on again?) video.
“There are more important things in the world THEN what we are going to watch at 11 p.m. at night isn’t there?”
THAN.
What is it with you Americans and your constant misuse of the words Then and Than? God that’s annoying.
And Fan, you gave your opinion on the topic and then told everyone they are silly to have an opinion on the topic. Interesting tack.
@,,,,: is exactly right. Leno’s show was so bad local affiliate news stations complained about the lead in. Folks were turning off NBC when Leno started and not coming back.
“THAN.
“What is it with you Americans and your constant misuse of the words Then and Than? God that’s annoying.
And Fan, you gave your opinion on the topic and then told everyone they are silly to have an opinion on the topic. Interesting TACK.”
*************************
Err, CB Rawks, that word would be “tact.” God, that’s annoying. 🙂
Erm, actually, Judy, tack is correct in the context that CB Rawks was using.
Kolby, you are correct. Color me embarrassed.
And to think, Howard Stern warned Conando about this!