Jay Leno Opens up about feuds with Letterman, Conan, and Stern

Andy Cohen took a break from Real Housewives drama Tuesday night to get into some late night talk show drama. Jay Leno stopped by the Clubhouse on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, and the former Tonight Show host opened up about some of the feuds he's had with other comedians. It all started back in 1992 when Leno took over The Tonight Show after Johnny Carson retired. At the time, Letterman hosted Late Night, which aired after the Tonight Show. Letterman seemed like the obvious choice to replace Carson, even Carson himself wanted Letterman for the job. But NBC decided to go with Leno, and there's been bad blood ever since. On WWHL, Leno insisted that the whole thing was blown way out of proportion. "We don't hate each other. The media makes a big thing about it. I'm a huge fan," Leno said of Letterman. Leno even went on to say that the two comedians learned a lot from each other early on in their careers. "Letterman was a great wordsmith. He could put things together but he's kind of a hesitant performer. I was a very loud, boisterous performer but I wasn't that good of a writer," Leno told Cohen. "So I'd watch him and go 'Oh man, how do you put those sentences together?' And he'd watch me and go, 'How can you be so confident on stage?' So we sort of took from each other a little bit." Although the drama surrounding Leno getting the job was nothing compared to the end of Leno's time as the Tonight Show host. It was a huge mess in 2009 when NBC gave the Tonight Show to Conan O'Brien, moving Leno to 10pm ET. Then just under eight months later, Conan's time as The Tonight Show host came to an end, and NBC gave the show back to Leno a few months later. But Leno said he wouldn't have done anything differently. "Look, their rating-based shows. People act like it's your decision," Leno said. "The network makes these decisions. They decide you're going to leave and then they decide when you're gonna come back. There is not a lot different I would have done." It's not just other late night hosts that have feuded with Leno, Howard Stern has blasted the former Tonight Show host for years. But Leno explained why he has, wisely, stayed quiet. "I didn't get into the feud, because you're not going to win a feud with Howard. Howard is good. If you start that feud, boom, you're down. So if you just let it roll and it's fine."