Conan O'Brien is still carrying a grudge against Jay Leno, sources have revealed to Radar Online.
Back in 2009, O'Brien, who had been riding the wave of success with his own late-night talk show since 1993, was named Leno's replacement on the "The Tonight Show" talk show. However, he was ousted six months into the role when Leno returned.
"It still sticks in Conan's craw to this day," an insider told Radar Online.
"Conan's convinced Jay went behind his back after Jay had second thoughts about leaving the late-night platform, and he feels he never got the chance to show what he could really do," the source continued. "Conan has never forgiven Jay and has never talked to him in all the years since. He's got a dart board at home with Jay's face on it."
Leno denied that he "deliberately sabotaged" O'Brien's deal with NBC during a 2021 appearance on "Club Random With Bill Maher."
"'Oh, Leno deliberately sabotaged his show to try and get the Tonight Show [back],'" Leno said to Maher about speculation about how it played out. "No ... it doesn't work that way. You try and do the best you can — and it didn't work."
Months later, in an interview with Adweek, O'Brien addressed the controversy, saying that the situation was important to him.
"At this point, even beginning to try and explain to people all the different ways in which I thought that was a screwed-up situation — and in some ways unjust — is absolutely asinine and feels completely stupid and self-indulgent," O'Brien said, according to Yahoo Entertainment! "But it was really important to me.
"I will admit to you, I am not a seer. I'm not a tech visionary. I'm not a revolutionary thinker. Talk about luck: I happen to exist at a time when the internet at that point, 2010, is really starting to flex its muscles. There was this explosion online, and that took me completely by surprise. I didn't see it coming," O'Brien recalled. "I remember at the time, there were people at NBC that — I always picture them in their black tower, going: [shocked indignation] 'How is he doing this? Release another falcon. Stop him!'"
O'Brien emphasized that he did not orchestrate the backlash that ensued.
"That was a lot of young people who thought it was bulls***. And they use the internet, so they went to town, which led to this grassroots movement. From there it was immediately this feeling of: 'Let's do a show for these people,'" he said.
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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