Jay Reno looks back at the infamous incident that caused him A long-term feud with Jimmy Kimmel.
While appearing in the 2010 “The Jay Leno Show,” Kimmel took repeated shots at Reno in the infamous “The Tonight Show” catastrophe involving Conan O’Brien.
Above Wednesday episode of “Deep with Graham Bensinger,” Reno, 64, shared her regrets about her camera encounter with Kimmel, 57, and revealed why she decided not to cut the comedian’s jab from the final broadcast.
“When Kimmel came to my show and humiliated me with his own show, I let it happen. I didn’t edit it,” recalls Leno.
He continued, “It was my mistake, I trusted someone. I went. And it’s fine, I mean we could have edited it from the show.
“Why didn’t you do that?” asked Bensinger, 38.
“Because that happened,” explained Reno. “It’s true – it happened. It’s my mistake. That’s how you learn.”
When Bensinger questioned whether Leno’s decision was “mistake”, the interaction made for “good TV” said that the comedians didn’t see it from that point of view.
“It’s not a good TV for me, because it really started everything that continues to this day,” he said. “But it’s okay, it’s okay. He’s a cartoon. You do what you have to do. I mean, I’ve never done it, but it’s okay. It’s okay. That’s right.”
The 2010 incident with Leno and Kimmel stems from a widely publicized conflict over plans to succeed NBC’s hit late-night show The Tonight Show.
In 2009, Leno agreed to resign as the host of “The Tonight Show” so that O’Brien could take over.
In return, Reno was given his own primetime talk show, “The Jay Leno Show.”
When both shows struggled with ratings, NBC proposed returning Reno’s show to a late night and pushing “Tonight’s Show with Conan O’Brien” into a later time slot. O’Brien refuses, leaves the network, and Reno returns to host “The Tonight Show.”
The big failure led to a huge backlash against Reno and NBC. A supporter of O’Brien, Kimmel made headlines to appear on Leno’s talk show a year later, during which he called out the host for his role in the controversy.
Kimmel joked when Leno asked Kimmel about the best prank he’d ever pulled.
Earlier this week, Kimmel also spoke to her feud with Leno on an episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”
Wednesday, The comedian teased guest Ben Affleck The actor walked the stage and said, “You have that expression on your face that I sometimes have when I see you, where you are, “What is he going to do? Is he going to do something?”
“I’m not going to do anything,” he told Affleck, “It wouldn’t be when I came to your house for Christmas. And I walked down the door, Jay Reno walked behind me, then we had a little talk with you, do you have something for each other?” And I had to stay there. ”
“Believe it or not, I didn’t follow the nuances of your gossip history,” Affleck told him.
“No, you just dropped a hand-held bullet on us,” Kimmel said.
Affleck witnessed the pair’s unpleasant exchange, saying, “This is painful enough. What’s strange? Is it strange? Wasn’t it publicly in for decades?”
The two comedians have been making the barb public for many years since the 2010 incident, but Kimmel revealed that he had repaired the lift in 2017.
The late-night host told the Hollywood Reporter that it was the birth of a young son that broke the silence between the two men.
“Jay and I reconciled. After my son had surgery, he called me and he was very kind.”
Kimmel’s son William John (now 8) was born from a heart defect requiring emergency surgery.
Looking back, Kimmel said his rivalry was rooted in his love for David Letterman. Letterman wanted to take over hosting “The Tonight Show” after Johnny Carson left in 1993, but when Leno was taken up the role instead, he left NBC for CBS.
“You need to remember how much I love David Letterman. When all of that happened, I was just a fan, I’m reading Bill Carter’s book. [1994’s The Late Shift: Letterman, Leno, and the Network Battle for the Night.] And then there was a villain and a hero, Dave was a hero and Jay was a villain. I started with a negative attitude about it. I sometimes insert myself into situations where there is no business inserting myself. ”
However, Kimmel said he softened his attitude towards Reno following the call of heart.
“You can’t argue [Leno’s] Success and his longevity. When I was in high school or college, he was one of my favourite manga. ”
