How did Jay Leno do during his "Oprah" appearance?
Read the transcript below and judge for yourself. The interview was taped at Leno's Burbank studio:
Mr. LENO: Hey, doll. Hey, doll
WINFREY: How are you?
Mr. LENO: How are you? You look beautiful.
WINFREY: Thank you. Well, thanks for letting me come to talk to you.
Mr. LENO: Well, thanks for coming. I appreciate it.
WINFREY: Yeah. I’m glad to be here, because you seem to be the man everybody's
talking about.
Mr. LENO: Lucky me.
WINFREY: Or at least one of them.
Mr. LENO: Yeah, yeah.
[BEGIN VIDEO CLIP]
WINFREY: It's the late night controversy that seems to have everybody riled up,
Jay versus Conan.
KATE, 23: I think that Jay Leno's taking back what's rightfully his.
ANDREA, 29: I think the fact that Jay Leno's choosing not to retire shows that
he's not really a very caring person.
WINFREY: It all started five years ago when Jay says NBC came to him and asked
him to give up his number one rated "Tonight Show" to make room for Conan
O'Brien to become host in 2009.
[GRAPHICS: THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO SEPTEMBER 27, 2004]
Mr. LENO: This show is like a dynasty, you hold it and then you hand it off to
the next person. So right now here it is, Conan, it's yours. See you in five
years, buddy. Okay.
WINFREY: Last May, Jay passed the torch as planned.
CONAN O’BRIEN: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to "The Tonight Show with Conan
O'Brien." Thank you.
WINFREY: In an unprecedented move, NBC decided to keep Jay on the air and gave
him the coveted 10:00 p.m. Primetime slot five nights a week.
[GRAPHICS: SEPTEMBER 14, 2009]
WINFREY: In September, "The Jay Leno Show" launched. After a strong start,
ratings for both shows slide and rumors swirled that "The Jay Leno Show" was
about to get canceled.
Mr. LENO: I don’t think there’s any truth to the rumors. See, it’s always been
my experience NBC only cancels you when you're in first place, so we're fine.
WINFREY: NBC then came up with a new plan--move Jay to 11:35 and push Conan back
a half-hour to 12:05.
Mr. O’BRIEN: NBC has finally come up with an exciting new idea. They want me to
follow Jay Leno.
WINFREY: Jay accepted the offer. That's when the war of the words began.
Mr. O’BRIEN: And I just want to say to the kids out there watching, you can do
anything you want in life. Yeah. Yeah, unless Jay Leno wants to do it, too.
WINFREY: In the end, Conan turned down the deal and took a $45 million buyout.
Last Friday night, Conan said goodbye.
[GRAPHICS: THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH CONAN O'BRIEN JANUARY 22, 2010]
Mr.
