As Letterman Hits Back, O'Brien Calls NBC Executives "Incompetent Morons" and Leno Skirts Blame: "Conan's Show... Was Not Doing Well"
Tonight, Jay Leno spoke seriously on the NBC late night controversy for the first time, skirting blame and saying, "Conan's show... was not doing well." Later, David Letterman continued his Leno-bashing, while O'Brien further took NBC to task. Videos inside.
FOR ALL OF THE NOTEWORTHY CLIPS FROM TONIGHT'S (TUESDAY, JAN. 19TH) LATE NIGHT SHOWS—ADDED AS THEY AIR—VISIT OUR NEW POST: [CLICK HERE]
As per usual, all of the noteworthy clips from tonight's broadcasts are grouped below by show and labeled accordingly.
I. THE JAY LENO SHOW
Here is Leno's full statement:
For a transcript of Leno's remarks, [CLICK HERE].
Before making his statement, Leno continued to poke fun at the situation during his monologue and made several digs at NBC. Leno also took another stab at David Letterman, saying, "Remember the more innocent days of late night TV, when the only thing people cared about was which intern the host was nailing?"
II. THE LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN
12:10 AM ET: David Letterman came out swinging tonight on The Late Show, and with multiple targets: NBC, Leno and NBC Sports President Dick Ebersol. In his opening monologue, Letterman made several jokes at both the network's, and Leno's, expense.
A few minutes later, Letterman played a comedic video called "The Future of The Tonight Show," which again poked fun at Leno and NBC's apparent reliance on him.
It wasn't until after his first commercial break, though, that Letterman brought out the big guns. Speaking candidly—albeit comically—about NBC's late night situation, Letterman went after Leno via impersonation and a debunking of the perception of him as a nice guy/"everyman," before taking Ebersol to task over his negative comments to The New York Times about Conan O'Brien.
III. THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH CONAN O'BRIEN
12:45 AM ET: It's clear that O'Brien has nothing to lose at this point. Following his harsh remarks for NBC on Friday, the Tonight Show host came out even harder tonight. After addressing rumors that he was legally unable to make negative statements about NBC, O'Brien decided to sing his remarks instead, calling network executives "incompetent morons."
Later, O'Brien spoke about the cross-country, "I'm with CoCo!" rallies that took place this afternoon, and played footage of the one in Los Angeles, which took place outside of Universal Studios.
1:10 AM ET:O'Brien then again addressed his controversial decision of last week to list The Tonight Show for sale on Craigslist, before dropping a new bombshell: today, he'd listed himself.
Here's a screengrab of O'Brien's listing (which appeared on his show):
1:30 AM ET: NBC may not want to employ O'Brien, but it looks like plenty of other companies do—tonight, he went through a list of real job offers he'd gotten since being pushed out by the network, including one from ABC to appear on Dancing with the Stars.
Then—as has become tradition the past few days—O'Brien invited Tonight Show writer Deon Cole on stage for a segment, the subject of which was whether or not O'Brien is a black man.
IV. THE LATE LATE SHOW WITH CRAIG FERGUSON
2:20 AM ET: Despite his vow to avoid talking about it, Ferguson couldn't help but get in a couple of nice jabs at Leno tonight. (Bonus: a deliciously distasteful joke about Mackenzie Phillips— but only for context.)
V. LATE NIGHT WITH JIMMY FALLON
2:30 AM ET: Fallon continued to avoid the controversy that could affect his future, but that didn't stop Gary Jarman—of English rock band The Cribs—from showing his support for O'Brien with a "Si, Conando" t-shirt.
VI. JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE!
2:30 AM ET: Kimmel had the night off and ABC played a rerun this evening, but—luckily for us—it was of his epic broadcast from last week, where he impersonated Leno for the entire show. To re-watch the already classic clips, [CLICK HERE].
[The Late Show with David Letterman]
[The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien]