30 most shocking late night scandals

24. Arsenio Hall used to really hate Jay Leno

We’ll certainly see throughout this list various instances of Jay Leno creating some controversy. One person who seems to have always carried some disdain for him is Arsenio Hall. This dates all the way back to the beginning of Arsenio’s run as a talk show host in the early 90s.

Arsenio first made the beef public in an interview. He says how Leno always talks as if the two of them are friends in interviews. So Arsenio clarifies that he and Jay are definitely not friends. This became much more clear a few months later, when Arsenio said “that punk-ass Leno should be going” instead of Dennis Miller, whose program was just canceled.

Some time later, Arsenio told EW that the feud between him and Leno was being drummed up in the press. However, he does claim that Leno spread a “racist and insulting” rumor about him, without clarifying what that particular rumor might be. Arsenio does mention how he never had any issues with David Letterman or Johnny Carson. So even if the feud had been played up to more than what it was in the media, there was still apparently something there between these two.