This excerpt clip reveals a Conan O'Brien still obviously pained by the ouster from The Tonight Show after just six months on the job and at the hands of Jay Leno, who pushed Conan out after Jay's 10 PM NBC program failed.
Here's the video:
What happened in what some have called "The Late Shift Two" was that when Jay Leno wanted to return to late-night television, Jeff Gaspin, NBC's head of entertainment, asked Conan to move back to his midnight slot to make room for a 30-minute show for Jay. Conan reportedly said no according to The New York Times.
The result was a nasty public argument that drew in everyone from David Letterman to this blogger, and even Howard Stern sidekick Artie Lange, who warned Conan about moving to LA.
Jay Leno didn't make it any better by issuing his "State of The Network" speech saying "Don't blame Conan:"
But David Letterman's take was classic:
Now, Conan O'Brien will get his own 11 PM show on TBS as George Lopez agreed to move his show to midnight.
In an obvious blast at Jay Leno, Conan said "If I had surrendered The Tonight Show and handed it over publicly to someone else, then I would not have come back six months later. But that's me. You know? Everyone's got their own, you know, way of doing things."
Asked if NBC had handled things differently, Conan O'Brien said the relationship between he and NBC had become so toxic it was time for a split.
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