28 Jan Jay Leno: “Being retired seemed like the selfish thing to do”

Posted at 14:51h in Entertainment, Television by
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Today is Jay Leno’s interview on Oprah and from the clip above, it doesn’t look like it’s going to salvage Jay’s nice guy image.

Oprah pressed Jay about whether he should have retired. Jay (and his ego) responded with “To me, being retired seemed like the selfish thing to do. I mean is it selfish that I still like being on TV? Oh yeah, sure.”

Jay also took a hard jab at Conan and his lack of success with the Tonight Show. “The minute you can’t do the job, they do tap you on the shoulder and tell you to leave.” Ouch.

Oprah is a longtime friend of Jay’s, they’ve appeared on each other’s shows before. Looks like she caught him in a tired, frustrated moment and he let his guard down a bit, revealing his cutthroat side. But then again, the TV business has never been wholesome.

We haven’t seen the whole interview yet. Have you? What did you think of it? Did it change which side you’re on? -Dr.FB

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3 Comments
  • LexAve456
    Posted at 00:36h, 29 January

    Also, for all of the Conan supporters, where were all of them when Conan was on The Tonight Show? He needed them at that time. I heard people ask why it took him so long to be funny again when he was about to be dropped. I would not be surprised if the blaming of Jay Leno was in some kind of twisted way, a way to get people to not only sympathize with Conan but to get them so wound up and angry that it’ll make them want to see him on his new TV show, whenever he get the deal with whoever he will sign with. Im sure he’s talking to Fox or whoever right now. This is Hollywood we’re talking about here.

  • LexAve456
    Posted at 00:32h, 29 January

    I saw the interview and I agree with Sophie. This was a business move pure and simple. Jay wasn’t lying, if you do well on your show, you will keep it and if you don’t, you’ll lose it. That’s what happened with Conan AND Jay. It’s just that Jay was 1st offered a half hour show at 11:35 and when Conan wasn’t done with The Tonight Show being moved to 12:05, NBC offered the Tonight Show back to Jay and he said yes. I knew Jay still wanted to keep doing “Tonight” even with his last shows, so I’m glad he’s going to get it back. I just wish it didn’t have to involve all of this drama and majority of the blame belongs to NBC. Conan is going to be alright and Jay is going to be alright.

  • Sophie
    Posted at 20:15h, 28 January

    In any business if you don’t reach your targets, they will replace you. I think it’s a business decision and Jay Leno shouldn’t be blamed. At the end of the day Conan will be fine, in due time we’ll see him on TV again. Jay Leno is a good comedian and talk show host, he works extremely hard, and the media should stop portraying him as the bad guy. If anyone is to blame then it’s NBC. They didn’t have faith in Jay 5 years ago and thought his numbers would drop, well they didn’t, but NBC had already done a deal with Conan.

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