Jimmy Kimmel Revealed A Big Secret About Jay Leno During A Debate With Bill Maher

Highlights

• Jay Leno’s wealth and living beneath his means surprise fans, despite his controversial legacy as a talk show host.
• Jimmy Kimmel openly discussed his negative experience with Leno, revealing that Leno tried to sabotage Conan O’Brien’s ratings
• Leno responded to Kimmel’s remarks, admitting fault for not following up with Kimmel and apologizing for any hurt feelings.

Thanks to Jay Leno’s years hosting The Tonight Show, he became so rich that fans are amazed he lives beneath his means. Even though Leno is richer than his peers, many observers question if he is among the best talk show hosts of all time. In fact, even Leno’s peers like to debate his legacy.

During Jimmy Kimmel’s career, he has always been an open book, including talking about his family and how rich he is. Another example of how open Kimmel can be is the fact that he revealed a secret about Jay Leno when he was interviewed by Bill Maher.

Jimmy Kimmel Called Out Jay Leno For Sabotaging Conan O’Brien

In June 2022, Jimmy Kimmel appeared on the podcast “Club Random with Bill Maher”. Since Maher and Kimmel are both known for being blunt and outspoken, the two hosts getting together was a recipe for controversy. That said, it was surprising that the most remarkable thing to come out of their conversation was a revelation about Jay Leno.

In 2010, there was so much drama in the late-night talk show arena that it seemed like everyone was taking sides. That drama focused on whether Jay Leno or Conan O’Brien would host The Tonight Show. At that time, it seemed like virtually everyone was siding with O’Brien, including his peers like Howard Stern, David Letterman, and Jimmy Kimmel.

Which celebrities can’t stand Jay Leno according to Nicki Swift?

• Arsenio Hall
• Dennis Miller
• Jimmy Kimmel
• George Lopez
• Patton Oswalt
• Howard Stern
• Rosie O’Donnell
• Johnny Carson
• John Oliver
• Joan Rivers
• Bill Hicks
• Andy Richter

More than a decade after those events, Kimmel appeared on Bill Maher’s aforementioned podcast. During Kimmel and Maher’s resulting conversation, the two television hosts had a passionate debate over the Leno and O’Brien drama.

In Maher’s case, he expressed his opinion that Leno did nothing wrong, since it was all business. On the other hand, Kimmel was very clear that he felt that Leno was in the wrong about how he handled the situation.

Since Kimmel spoke out against Leno in 2010, the fact that he still felt that way wasn’t very newsworthy. However, while talking about how Leno handled things in 2010, Kimmel revealed something about the situation that was fascinating.

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As Kimmel spoke about the situation, he expressed his opinion that Leno was angling to get The Tonight Show back from the second O’Brien took over. Kimmel even suggested that Leno intentionally torpedoed O’Brien’s ratings in a move he labeled “diabolical”.

Taken aback by Kimmel calling Leno diabolical, Maher responded with a joke. Maher asked Kimmel if Leno had done something to him to think so negatively about him. At that moment, Kimmel surprisingly stated that Leno had done something to him.

“He did do a weird thing to me. But I don’t want to make this all about… Because I, I’m fine with him now. We’ve spoken. It’s fine.”

From there, Kimmel went on to talk about what Leno had done to him.

“When ABC was, when NBC was going to turn the show over to Conan, Jay was talking to ABC about coming on at 11:30. And Jay, um, needed to get, Bob Iger, they needed to get my permission in, contractually. Because I was contracted to be on at midnight, not 12:30.”

Kimmel continued, “So, they wanted to get my permission first. And so at that time, Jay called me a lot and, you know, we spoke about all sorts of things and I felt like we were having a friendly relationship. And then the day NBC decided, ‘No, we’re keeping Jay.’ Never heard from him again.”

Kimmel then went on to reveal that before Leno cut off communication, he’d told him he would be willing to move to make room for him. To be clear, Kimmel told Maher this wasn’t all out of the kindness of his heart.

Kimmel also believed that Leno would be a better lead-in for his show. Still, it is a big deal for a late-night host to move from midnight to 12:30.

In response to Kimmel’s story, Maher remarked that he must have forgotten that Leno tried to move to ABC. However, Kimmel corrected Maher by telling him he hadn’t forgotten since it wasn’t something most people knew had happened.

“I don’t think most people know that, but I know that because I was asked to move to 12:30.”

One month after Jimmy Kimmel and Bill Maher’s conversation, Jay Leno appeared during an episode of “Club Random with Bill Maher”. During the resulting conversation, Maher and Leno discussed what Kimmel had said during his appearance a month earlier. At first, Leno claimed that Kimmel is a huge David Letterman fan and that is why they don’t see eye to eye.

As their conversation continued, Maher asked Leno about getting offers from other networks when Conan O’Brien was set to take over The Tonight Show. In response, Leno instantly confirmed that Kimmel’s story about them talking behind the scenes was completely true.

“I heard Kimmel talk to you about that. That I had called him and I did. And I didn’t realize that I was supposed to do a follow-up call with him and I certainly apologize for that.”

After Conan O’Brien left The Tonight Show, he went on to host a late-night talk show for TBS. When O’Brien ended that show, Kimmel paid tribute to his peer and
cracked a joke at Jay Leno’s expense
. “I also want to congratulate Conan O’Brien on 28 years of very funny late-night television. Conan wrapped up his show on TBS tonight. Anyway, here’s to Conan and Andy Richter and everybody involved with that show. We look forward to whatever you have planned next at HBO Max. And I also want to say, congratulations to Jay Leno on his new time slot at TBS.”

From there, Leno and Maher went on to talk about the 2010 drama focused on The Tonight Show. During that part of their conversation, Leno addressed the idea that he deliberately sabotaged O’Brien’s version of The Tonight Show as Kimmel had suggested.

“That didn’t work. And then you know, I was, ‘Oh Leno deliberately sabotaged his show to try and get The Tonight Show.’ No, that doesn’t work, it doesn’t work that way. You try to do the best you can and we, it didn’t work.”

Leno went on to explain that everything that went on behind the scenes took place very quickly. Leno also brought up not calling Kimmel back a second time.

“This all happened fairly quickly. You know, I called Jimmy Kimmel and I said, ‘I’m getting offers from ABC. I don’t want to start a whole thing here. If they’re talking about putting me on at 11:30, would you want to go on at 12:30?’”

Leno continued, “I think he said yeah, he’d like to. I said, ‘Oh, okay.’ We became friends and then that didn’t happen and it became public and I suppose I should have called Jimmy and explain to him again, but I didn’t. I don’t know why I didn’t. I just didn’t. I thought he probably figured out, but I think maybe he was hurt by that and I apologize to him for that.”

Source: NewsFinale