Jimmy Kimmel sat down with Bill Carter (author of The Late Shift and The War for Late Night) yesterday for a interview in front of a live auditorium audience in New York City, and holy moly he did not mince words when the subject of Jay Leno came up:
Carter asked Kimmel about Leno at a point in the interview after Kimmel, 42, had expressed his life-long admiration for David Letterman, who Kimmel idolized when he was a teen growing up in Las Vegas. Starting in January, Kimmel will be competing head-to-head against both Leno, 62, and Letterman, 65, when “Jimmy Kimmel Live” moves its start time to 11:35 p.m. eastern time — a move announced by ABC earlier this month.
“How about Jay Leno?” Carter asked Kimmel.
“F— him,” answered Kimmel, without pausing to consider his reply. [Xfinity]
Kimmel went on to talk about the time during the Leno-Conan debacle when he dressed up as Jay on his own show (saying “I impersonated [Leno] on my show, and it was the most fun I’ve ever had on my show”) and later went on Leno’s 10 p.m. show to brutally mock Leno right to his face (“It was probably my proudest moment”), but my favorite part of the interview was probably this little tidbit:
Kimmel then noted that comedians he knew were the first to congratulate him for how he’d taken Leno to task. “People, it turns out, really don’t like Jay Leno,” Kimmel said.
The thing that’s weird — and kind of great — about this is that Kimmel really doesn’t have a horse in this race. Letterman despises Leno and gleefully takes every opportunity to trash him because Leno hosed him out of The Tonight Show so many years ago. It’s personal. Same with Conan, who seems like he tries very hard to take the high road, but can’t always contain the scalding hot magma bubbling millimeters under the surface, causing him to quickly lash out then backtrack once every couple months. He got hosed out of his dream job — which he actually had, and then had taken away, which is even worse — by Leno, too. Kimmel? He’s never been personally burned by Leno (to my knowledge at least), he just thinks Leno is a sh-thead, and he is happy to let you clip a microphone to him so he can tell whoever happens to be within earshot.
I find that hilarious.
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Leno is the caught-huffing-glue DWI of late night talk show hosts.
any excuse to post that clip is a good one.
The Late Shift was the most public behind the scenes poitic-ing book/movie that most of us were introduced to the true Hollywood. I loved the HBO movie. Might go try and track it down to watch it.
I think the whole thing is on YouTube.
tHANKS!
Loved this movie–always disappointed when “The Night Shift” comes on TV, I think it’s the Late Shift, and it’s a movie about a morgue
The War for Late Night is such a good book. I literally couldn’t put it down because it was so fascinating. Leno tried to be chummy with Jimmy back when he thought he might move to ABC and bump Jimmy’s show in the process. Once Jay got his ill-fated prime time show, he didn’t speak to Jimmy again, until that night Jimmy destroyed him on the Jay Leno Show, not the Tonight Show.
Bingo. That’s (part of) why Kimmel dislikes Jay. Jay totally cozied up to Kimmel just to get Kimmel to approve the deal with ABC. Once that ship had sailed, Leno blew Kimmel off.
“…and later went on The Tonight Show to…”
Correction: it was The Jay Leno Show he went on, not The Tonight Show.
Whoops. Fixed.
To be honest, since Carson retired, there has been no Tonight Show.
/I am correct sir
Regarding Kimmel not having a horse in the race: When Kimmel’s show was first announced, Leno proclaimed that anybody who dared to be a guest on the new show was no longer invited back to the Tonight Show
Kimmel has got a brass pair.
Over the past couple years no one on television has gained more respect from me than Jimmy Kimmel.
I know it’s in the block quote and not your mistake, but Kimmel isn’t 42.
Jimmy Kimmel tells a story of his days on the Kevin & Bean show in LA (KROQ) where they had an interview with Leno pushing one of his books. They proceeded to play a bunch of “excerpts” from the book on tape, which of course were them horsing around. Leno was not pleased. I need to see if I can track that down in the K&B archive site.
Thought that said Jimmy Fallon at first glance and I malfunctioned for 10.528 seconds.
Heres my vote for the new host of late night: [cubetitans.com]
Now that guy is funny, get him a job. Almost wet my pants watching that clip
I know Leno thought that 10 at 10 sounded good but he clearly doesn’t have 10 questions for the guest. “What do you fear most?” “Have you ever ordered anything off of TV?” It’s almost like his writers are setting Jimmy up. And then Leno went crying to Oprah and called it a blind side. Probably because he can’t look away from his cue cards during an interview long enough to respond. UGH, I hate Jay.
it’s also a smart move by Kimmel to come off like this. Leno is pure cheese and Letterman while a classic, is no longer the edgy, me vs. the establishment, late night host he once was. Conan, Craig, and Fallon are silly fun, nothing wrong with that, but right now there’s no one out there that has that danger factor that can be a draw with audiences.
NBC has to be at least somewhat worried right now. Fallon is a solid late late night host, but I dont think he and Jay’s audiences are similar at all, I dont see Jay’s audience just seamlessly switching to Fallon. By the time Letterman is done, Conan’s once young core late night audience will be entering into that ‘Tonight Show’ age bracket, more likely to be staying in at night to watch him regularly again, if CBS decides to go with him.
Although I still don’t know if Conan is that much of a guarantee at this point to keep CBS viewers or network viewers in general. Right now Kimmel has positioned himself quite nicely to be the heavy weight favorite when Letterman and Leno step aside finally.
I think another funny part of this is that Adam Carolla, Kimmel’s close friend, is a huge Leno fan (not his comedy per se but as a person), since they’re both car nuts.