Jay Talking

To repair his suddenly tarnished image Jay Leno puts on the white hat and walks back the cat on how Conan got the "Tonight" show. Jay fingers Jeff Zucker (not by name) and NBC for the ill-fated five-month 10p experiment that he claims he told them wouldn't work. Jay says NBC suits told him they could "guarantee" Conan would buy the 11:35 Jay and 12:05 Conan. Wrong.

Executive summary: both had lousy ratings and ratings rule. Nothing personal.  Don't blame Jay:



Jay dons his black hat for a few well-placed NBC barbs:



Conan Monday said he was ordered not to talk about it anymore. "But they didn't say I couldn't sing."  A bitter Johnny-Two-Note Conan:  "Morons, morons, morons..."

NBC cock-a-roach CEO Jeff Zucker on Charlie Rose:  "I'm very surprised and disappointed how nasty it turned."

Replace "nasty" with "public" and you've got the truth.

Conspiracy buffs, listen up!  It was a set-up to get ratings-challenged Conan off a "Tonight" show Jay Leno never wanted to leave.  The plotting triumverate of Zucker, Leno, and NBC Entertainment suit Jeff Gaspin, conspired to dump Conan by putting Jay's routine at 10p which NBC (and spent MILLIONS of dollars pimping) as an experiment. 

The experiment fails.  Ratings suck.  NBC affiliates go batshit over Jay's lousy lead-in to local news.  Jay at 10 gets the heave-ho.  NBC knows Conan will walk on a split night shift. Conan swallows NBC's bait and takes the internecine war public, setting himself up for an early end and giant payoff.

Jay swoops in as Mighty Mouse here to save the night seven months after Conan's big debut...

If you think the scenario is far-fetched, recall how conniving Jay wrested the "Tonight" show from Johnny Carson's hand-picked successor David Letterman...