Jay Leno Reflects On His Old Feud With David Letterman

As everyone knows by now, hosting a television show can present some peculiar difficulties. Sometimes, even drama ensues! That was the case with Jay Leno and his colleague, David Letterman.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Jay Leno reflected on some past feuds with hosts of the other talk shows.

Back in the annals of television history, Leno first faced drama back in 1992 when Johnny Carson retired from the Tonight Show.

Everyone expected Letterman to replace the legendary talk show host, but as the story goes, the job ultimately went to Jay.

It wasn’t all bad for Letterman though, he got a role as the Late Show host, and that position allowed him to compete directly with Leno at the same time.

Jay was very aware of the awkward circumstances.

He said to the Hollywood Reporter, “Johnny was always very kind to me, but I think it’s well known that Johnny wanted Dave. But Dave had a terrible relationship with the network.”

Despite the lack of bad blood between Leno and Carson, Jay took a lot of flack, and according to him, he was made out to be a horrible person.

However, there was a bit of animosity between Leno and Letterman.

So much so, that Letterman was not present the day Leno was partaking in his final broadcast.

Jay said to the Reporter, “I asked David first. You know David is odd — he’s just awkward. I just think it would have been awkward for him. ‘Just something on tape? Leno who? Anything?’ He said, ‘Nah, I’m just not comfortable. That’s your night. I don’t wanna do it.’ We may have talked over the phone. But he just was not comfortable with it. You know, anybody that knows Dave knows he’s quirky, if not—To me, it was always quirkiness; it was never meanness.”