Leno: I've no animosity towards Conan
Jay Leno: I've no animosity towards Conan
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Tuesday, 19, Jan 2010 09:49
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US television presenter Jay Leno has offered his side of the story in the public fiasco surrounding NBC's scheduling of its late-night chatshows.
Former Simpsons writer Conan O'Brien took over the Tonight Show in June last year with Leno moving to a 22:00 slot but NBC looked to rejig the schedule earlier this month out of concern for low ratings for both host's new shows.
However, the network's apparent proposal that O'Brien's Tonight Show be moved to a 12:05 slot, with Leno hosting an 11:35 show, has led to a public backlash against NBC with a number of celebrities rallying in O'Brien's favour.
Leno has since spoken out against criticism of his perceived reneging on an agreement to hand the Tonight Show over to Leno, saying: "Through all of this, Conan O'Brien has been a gentleman.
"He's a good guy. I have no animosity towards him," Leno explained during the opening monologue of his January 18th episode.
"This is all business," Leno continued. "If you don't get the ratings, they take you off the air. I think you know this town, you can do almost anything. You get ratings they keep you. I don't get ratings, he wants [the Tonight Show slot]. That was NBC's solution. It didn't work so we might have an answer for you tomorrow."
Leno admitted moving to a 22:00 timeslot after O'Brien took over the Tonight Show "didn't seem like a good idea at the time" but he agreed to move to an earlier slot as he was assured focus groups were in favour of the idea and it would allow him to keep his staff in work.
With no solution to O'Brien's unhappiness seemingly on the horizon, Leno said it "looks like" he will return as host of the Tonight Show at 23:35 after O'Brien rejected moving to midnight.