Jay said:
"“I’m old enough to realize there’s only so many years left,” Mr. Leno said. “I kind of watched Howard Stern. On radio, Howard to me was a populist. The truck driver, the average guy would listen in the café, the truck, the old car that’s 50 years old and still has an AM radio. Then he went to Sirius and obviously it was a lot of money. But I don’t hear him quoted anymore. People don’t say: ‘Hey, did you hear what Howard said today?’ And I’m sure he’s still doing what he always does. But to me that seemed a mistake.”
Here is the full article:
In his first interview since announcing that he would remain with NBC, Jay Leno spoke with Bill Carter about the creation of his new prime-time series, tentatively titled “The Jay Leno Show.” In these exclusive outtakes from that interview, Mr. Leno spoke further about his broadcast-industry colleagues (and sometime rivals) David Letterman and Howard Stern, and why it might have been safer to stay in late night than move to prime time.
Mr. Leno knows he will not have an easy time next September when he begins competing against all the cops running around at 10 p.m. on other networks.
“The first time we get beat by ‘CSI Miami’ it’ll be: ‘Aha!’,” Mr. Leno said, relaxing on a plush couch in the green room of his “Tonight” show. “I just want to do well enough to get established. I’m a realist. I know it’s going to be different.”
He has already observed one competitor, Leslie Moonves, the CEO of CBS, guaranteeing Mr. Leno’s new prime time show will not beat CBS’s “CSI” franchise. “I never said we’d beat ‘CSI’ ever,” Mr. Leno said. “Those are well-produced, slick shows. But in the re-runs and other times, that’s when we catch up. The tortoise and the hare: that’s the key.”
Mr. Leno is accustomed to winning; he’s been doing it in late night for 15 years. “When you do what I do,” he said, “it’s sort of a populist thing. So when you’re not number one, you really lose. We try to do a broad spectrum of jokes. I try to do a clever one, then a silly joke then hopefully another clever joke and then maybe a corny joke.” His monologue now stretches to between 11 and 13 minutes a night.
Beyond the 46 weeks he works on television, Mr. Leno still performs about 160 stand-up comedy dates a year. Mr. Leno said, “I’m a comedian. I’m not a talk show host.” Of his great rival, David Letterman, he said, “I think Dave is a broadcaster, as a good a one as there has ever been. I would say Dave is a better broadcaster and I am the better stand-up comedian.”
Yet Mr. Leno clearly had no interest in stepping away from television. “I’m old enough to realize there’s only so many years left,” Mr. Leno said. “I kind of watched Howard Stern. On radio, Howard to me was a populist. The truck driver, the average guy would listen in the café, the truck, the old car that’s 50 years old and still has an AM radio. Then he went to Sirius and obviously it was a lot of money. But I don’t hear him quoted anymore. People don’t say: ‘Hey, did you hear what Howard said today?’ And I’m sure he’s still doing what he always does. But to me that seemed a mistake.”
Mr. Leno conceded, though, that it might have been easier to move to ABC and stay in late night, where he would have been the favorite to beat both Mr. Letterman and Conan O’Brien. “That would be nice,” he said. “But you know, things come along; you never know what’s going to knock you out of the box.”
He added: “If it was 1992, I wouldn’t have done it. But at this end of your career, if it doesn’t work, at least you can say: ‘I did that, I did the “Tonight” show,” and it worked out OK.”
Bill Carter’s complete report on Jay Leno and his move to prime time can be found here.
Source: New York Times
