Conan O’Brien on 60 Minutes
Six months later, the former Tonight Show host can't... bring himself around to seeing Jay Leno's point of view on the battle for late night.
"It's hard for me to get inside his head and argue his side of this whole thing. Here's what I can say, I'm happy with my decision. I sleep well at night and I hope he's happy with his decision."
When asked if he thinks Leno acted "honorably" during the shuffle of power.
"I don't think I can answer that. I don't think um... I can just tell you maybe how I would've handled it and I would do it differently.
I'm on record as surrendering the Tonight Show because it didn't feel right to me to keep it under certain circumstances so I think you can believe me when I tell you in different situation had I surrendered The Tonight Show and handed it over to somebody else publicly and wished them well, I would not have come back six months later. But that's me. Everyone's got their own way of doing things."
O'Brien goes on to say that Leno hasn't reached out to him and that he doesn't think he'll be hearing from him.
I've always been more engaged by Conan's brand of comedy than Jay's but it's never been difficult for me to side with Leno in this particular feud.
Bottom Line: Conan and his people made the power play six years ago to try and wedge their way into the Tonight Show when the ship was still smoothly sailing under Leno's stewardship.
Everything that has happened since runs downhill from that decision. O'Brien rolled the dice and lost. It would be refreshing if he could admit he brought this upon himself in some way, shape, or form.
You can watch the full segment from 60 Minutes below.
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