“I took over from Johnny [Carson], ‘You stink, you suck, we hate you.’ Then you go along and you’re great; from last January to May, I was a genius. I get it, I understand how it works,” he tells Broadcasting & Cable.
The former late night king blames much of it on “anger at NBC. But it’s like I say to the people who write the dramas: If I weren’t doing this, it would be Dateline five nights a week or reality shows. We’ve kept work in California, we have 22 WGA writers, but there’s always going to be anger and resentment.”
And Jay certainly won’t “take it personally.” He adds, “Right now we’ve reached a level [and] we’re not going below that. The numbers seem to tell us people [who] are watching the show are staying the whole hour; that’s a good sign. I’m told if we can keep a 1.5 [rating], they make $300 million a year; this is what they say. So we’re a little above the 1.5, we’re doing OK.”
When asked about whether he thinks David Letterman is getting a relative free pass from the media regarding his current situation, Jay says, “I wouldn’t trade places with Dave now for anything! I don’t think he’s getting a free pass.”
As for any regrets? “Would I have preferred to stay at 11:30? Yeah, sure. I would have preferred that. I think it’s too soon to say whether I regret anything or not.”
8 Comments
He forgot to mention that he’s an insufferable douchebag with too much money and cars.
I didn’t even remember that he still had a show. This guy’s ego is too big. Take a seat when you’re told to sit down.
I didn’t even remember that he still had a show. This guy’s ego is too big. Take a seat when you’re told to sit down.
I didn’t even remember that he still had a show. This guy’s ego is too big. Take a seat when you’re told to sit down.
He’s actually taking away more industry work than creating it (as he says). With one hour of his show every week night, that’s five hours a week he’s taking away from scripted dramas (or 10 hours from situation comedies depending on how you slice it). That would’ve created a hell of a lot work - for writers, producers, directors, actors and crew - than the 22 WGA writers employed by his show.
Leno is King of Late Night, he was killing creepy letterman in the ratings for years.
Stupid NBC, you don’t fix what aint broke.
Jay may be an obsessed workaholic, but he is smart and thoughtful on many topics. It’s too bad he’s been caught up in all this b.s. True he brought some of it on himself, but enough time has gone by and people should have just moved on. His situation sucks.
Many people predicted the failure of the Jay Leno Show, including myself. From my June 4, 2009 blog: “When Jay Leno comes to NBC in the fall, another five hours of scripted shows go with it, so look to cable for quality programming that involves writers and actors - as opposed to talk shows, game shows, talent shows, and other types of reality shows where regular people make fools of themselves at a very low cost.” http://paulsolomon.blogspot.com/2009/06/rip-nbc-cbs-abc-and-fox.html