David Letterman and Jay Leno may be ‘rivals’ but there is not animosity between the two – at least not from Letterman’s side.
Back in the day, everyone thought that Dave was going to take over Johnny Carson‘s spot as host of the Tonight Show in ’93, but instead NBC gave the job to Jay Leno! Dave went on to secure his spot on CBS and thereafter established one of thr biggest rivalries on TV.
Anyway, both funny men were ‘screwed’ by NBC!
In a new Rolling Stone interview Letterman reveals that he empathizes with Leno’s ‘forced’ retirement from the Tonight Show.
In support of Leno, Dave goes on to say:
“Unless I’m misunderstanding something, I don’t know why, after the job Jay has done for them, why they would relinquish that. I guess they thought it was a less messy way to handle what happened to me at NBC. I don’t know.”
Dave also graciously acknowledges and accepts his long held #2 spot to top dog Jay:
“I wish that we — and when I say ‘we’ I mean ‘me’ — I wish I could have prevailed. I think he has greater appeal for more people than I do.”
Letterman also says that he hasn’t given much thought about possibly beating the Tonight Show when Conan O’Brien takes the reigns because he still can’t believe Jay won’t be there.
Poor Jimmy Kimmel. He always gets left out of the Late Night power talks!
Why isn’t he thought of as relevant????
[Image via Getty Images.]
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