Conan O'Brien on Jay Leno

(Conan hair gags over the years.)

While I was speaking to Bob Thompson for the story you can find just below this entry, he said, "Even Conan has to begrudgingly like this - this is good news for 'The Tonight Show.' Even though this was an insult to Conan - he's still following Jay. He's still getting Jay's cast-offs. It's like the child who's always overshadowed by the older sibling and when the other sibling finally goes to college, the parents adopt another kid."

Yeah, and Conan is moving to L.A. - NBC's building him a nice new set on a soundstage on the Universal lot - which means it's going to be just that much harder for him to book guests, given that the biggest names will want to appear with Jay in primetime. On the other hand, Jay won't be going to another network and handing Conan's @ss to him in a ratings war. (Conan's got trouble enough right now with Craig Ferguson.)

But Conan's taking it like a gentleman. Taping tonight's show this afternoon, O'Brien had this to say:

"Let's talk about this on a serious note for just one moment. I've had many people calling me today saying, 'What is all this? "What's happening?' Jay Leno is going to be going in at 10:00 on NBC. I wanted to make something very clear here on the show this evening. I've known about this for a while. I've talked a lot about this with Jay. I am thrilled. I am absolutely thrilled that Jay is staying at NBC. He has been my lead-in on this program for 16 seasons. He is a fantastic lead-in. He is a huge part of my success. I am indebted to Jay Leno. And I love the idea that that relationship is going to continue. He is going to be my lead-in continuing, I hope, for a long, long time. So congratulations to Jay Leno. This is a happy ending. It's very nice. We're thrilled for him and we're thrilled for everybody at the 'Tonight Show.' Also I've talked it over with my producer and that means I can keep doing my Jay Leno impression."