Photo: Vivien Killilea/Getty Images; Rich Fury/Getty Images
Jay Lenoopened up about the late-night drama that was sparked after he left — and later returned — toThe Tonight Showmore than a decade ago.
On Sunday’s episode of Bill Maher’sClub Randompodcast, the 72-year-old comedian denied he “deliberately sabotaged” the iconic NBC show afterConan O’Brientook over hosting duties in 2009.
“That doesn’t work,” Leno explained. “It doesn’t work that way. You try and do the best you can and it didn’t work.”
The switcheroo prompted O’Brien to leave the network, where he’d been employed since 1993, to hostConanon TBS.
Lenoalso defended his decision to stay at NBC rather than move to a different network amid the controversy.
“Sometimes the czar you have is better than the one you’re going to,” he told Maher, 66. “Then you have your old team shooting at you as well. I just figured let’s just play this out and see what happens. This all happened fairly quickly.”
Michael S. Schwartz/Getty Images
Leno added that at the time he considered joining ABC, the home ofJimmy Kimmel Live,and even calledJimmy Kimmelhimself to discuss it. However, he never followed up with him after deciding to stay at NBC.
Leno leftThe Tonight Showfor good in February 2014, andJimmy Fallonstepped in as his successor. He now hosts the syndicated game showYou Bet Your Lifewith his formerTonight Showband leaderKevin Eubanks.
O’Brienaddressedthe controversy over Leno returning toThe Tonight Showin a 2010 interview with60 Minutes.
“He went and took that show back and I think in a similar situation, if roles had been reversed, I know — I know me, I wouldn’t have done that,” O’Brien said at the time.
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free weekly newsletterto get the biggest news of the week delivered to your inbox every Friday.
In the interview, the comedian noted he would not have “surrenderedThe Tonight Showand handed it over to somebody publicly and wished them well — and then … six months later [reclaimed it]. But that’s me, you know.”
O’Brien added that, if he had been in Leno’s shoes, he would’ve “done something else, go someplace else.”
source: people.com
