Jay Leno reflects on feuds with Letterman, Howard Stern, and Conan

Nick Paschal
·Supervising Producer, Yahoo Entertainment

Andy Cohen took a break from Real Housewives drama Tuesday to get into some late night talk show drama. Former Tonight Show host Jay Leno stopped by the Clubhouse on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen and opened up about some of his feuds with other comedians.

It all started in 1992, when Leno took over The Tonight Show upon Johnny Carson‘s retirement. At the time, Letterman hosted Late Night, which aired after The Tonight Show. It seemed as if Letterman would be the one to replace Carson — who himself favored Letterman for the job. But NBC decided to go with Leno, and there’s been bad blood ever since.

Leno insisted that the whole thing had been blown way out of proportion, however. “We don’t hate each other; the media makes a big thing about it. I’m a huge fan,” Leno said of Letterman.

He added that the two had learned from each other early in their careers. “Letterman was a great wordsmith. He could put things together, but he’s kind of a hesitant performer,” Leno told Cohen. “I was a very loud, boisterous performer, but I wasn’t that good a writer. 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.”

The tension surrounding Leno’s getting the job as the Tonight Show host was nothing compared with his departure. It was a huge mess in 2009 when NBC gave The Tonight Show to Conan O’Brien, moving Leno to a new show at 10 p.m. Within eight months, the network wanted to move Leno’s show to the 11:35 p.m. slot and The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien back 30 minutes, to 12:05 a.m. Conan refused to go along, and his time as Tonight Show host came to an abrupt end. A few months later, Leno was back as the host of The Tonight Show.

These things just come with the territory, Leno said. “Look, they’re rating-based shows,” he said. “People act like it’s your decision — 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.”

Leno has had problems with noncomedians, too. Howard Stern has blasted him host for years, but Leno explained why he has 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, it’s fine.”

Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen airs Sundays through Thursdays at 8 p.m. on Bravo.

Conan O’Brien completely changed the format and look of his show. Check out what’s different:

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