Jay Leno’s public feud with the rest of the late night comedy world can be traced back to Jay and Jay alone. Retiring from The Tonight Show and Conan O’Brien taking over, an honor Conan earned, only to get bored and come back to launch his Jay Leno Show which caused struggling ratings for both shows and eventually led to Conan’s exit from the network was the biggest stabbing in the back in late night TV.
Back in 2010, in that video above, Jimmy Kimmel went on Jay Leno’s show and proceeded to roast Leno the entire time. Flash forward to present day and Jay Leno spoke about the Jimmy Kimmel incident and it seems as if Leno is at least aware that what he did happened and people (Conan and crew) got hurt in the process, even if he doesn’t believe what he did was wrong.
Jay Leno was recently a guest on Graham Bensinger’s show. The full episode is behind a paywall on YouTube for subscribers but there are clips from the interview and we have Jay Leno’s full quotes about the Jimmy Kimmel incident.
Speaking about Jimmy Kimmel ripping him apart, Leno said “When Kimmel came on my show and humiliated me on my own show, I let it happen. I didn’t edit it. It was my mistake, I trusted somebody. I went, ‘Ah, I made a mistake. Ok, I should pay the price.’ And it’s fine, it’s fine. I mean, we could have edited it out of the show.”
Frankly, it’s unclear here if Jay Leno believes it was a “mistake” to allow Jimmy Kimmel on his show or if it was a “mistake” to tell Conan the show was his only to take that offer back and screw Conan over for years.
Jay Leno went on to say “It’s real — it happened. It’s my mistake. That’s how you learn. It’s not good TV for me because it started a whole thing that continues to this day, really. But it’s okay, it’s alright. He’s a comic — you do what you gotta do. I mean, I wouldn’t have done it, but that’s okay. That’s alright. It is what it is.”
Jay Leno saying ‘I wouldn’t have done it’ while talking about Jimmy Kimmel is a massive self own and he doesn’t even see it. Jimmy Kimmel went out there and defended his fellow hard-working late night TV host Conan O’Brien who was stabbed in the back by Jay Leno, and he did it with hilarious jokes!
Leno though says “I wouldn’t have done it” referring to… defending a colleague from a massive injustice? Leno doesn’t care about the industry? About fair treatment of comedians? About all of the writers and set workers who lost their job because of his selfish behavior?
© Robert Hanashiro / USA Today Network / Tom Beckwith/For the DNJ / Jack Gruber via Imagn Images
If you want to see clips from Leno’s interview with Graham Bensinger, this one i sat least worth watching even if this story has been shared before… Does Leno have any new stories? People are wondering.