Long-time late night television host Jay Leno took some time to reflect upon on his decision to move to an earlier time slot in a recent interview with Broadcasting and Cable News.
Leno sat down with the television news site for an interview that touched upon his time slot switch that shook up the NBC programming schedule.
It went like this:
Jay Leno started off the late night television shuffle when
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno went from 11:35 p.m. to 10 p.m. on NBC and became
The Jay Leno Show.
This opened up the 11:35 p.m. slot for
Late Night with Conan O’Brien which was originally shown at 12:35 p.m. on NBC.
The 12:35 p.m. NBC time slot was then filled with
Saturday Night Live alumni member Jimmy Fallon as he became the new host of
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.
While all of this happened,
The Late Show with David Letterman remained untouched on the 11:35 p.m. time slot on CBS.
With all the of the late night hosts in their respected time designations now, Leno says he still might be partial to the later program.
“Would I have preferred to stay at 11:30? Yeah, sure. I would have preferred that,” he told
[i]Broadcasting and Cable[/i].
Leno, who originally thought about retirement, made the move on NBC after nearly 17 years interviewing celebrities, politicians and people if interest behind the desk at his Burbank, California studio.
“I think it's too soon to say whether I regret anything or not…,” he continued.
The comments were made as Leno’s new show couldn’t compete with a rerun of
C.S.I. Miami that was on CBS.
Ratings also began to shrink for the NBC late night host in lieu of the coverage towards CBS late night host David Letterman who has received press surrounding his alleged sexual encounters with female staff members.
Even with his declining ratings, Leno is still living comfortably.
He mentioned in the interview that if he continues on the path he is on he will make $300 million per year.
Leno did go on to say though that he is adamant his ratings will come back around.
"Your job is to put your nose to the grindstone and try to fix it. I could complain all I want and it wouldn't change the outcome. Nobody likes a whiner. You're on until you're not on anymore. You just do the best job you can," he said.
Leno put to rest his critics by saying, "I've never walked away from anything in my life ... This is what I do. You keep plowing ahead."
Throughout the interview with Leno, Broadcast and Cable News was very broad in their questioning.
The one hour interview showed a serious but still zany Leno as he spoke about negative press coverage, the Letterman sex scandal, and more.
The edited interview has been transcribed on Broadcasting and Cable News and can be viewed by clicking
here.
