Jay Leno vs. Jimmy Kimmel may have been the last feud in late-night TV. Though it began over 15 years ago and is now settled, it still comes up in conversation today. Leno recently reflected on the conflict and shared his biggest mistake.
Kimmel became a figure in the 2009-2010 Tonight Show drama involving NBC, Leno, and Conan O'Brien. Behind the scenes, Leno was talking with Kimmel about a potential move to ABC. When that fell through, Kimmel became a vocal O'Brien defender.
The late-night host took things to another level when he appeared on The Tonight Show after NBC reinstalled Leno as the host following O'Brien's resignation. Rather than play nice, Kimmel used his appearance to lob one grenade after another at Leno.
“When Kimmel came on my show and humiliated me on my own show, I let it happen," Leno said in an interview with Graham Bensinger. "I didn’t edit it. It was my mistake, I trusted somebody. I went, ‘Ah, I made a mistake. Ok, I should pay the price.’ And it’s fine, it’s fine. I mean, we could have edited it out of the show.”
Kimmel relentlessly ripped Leno during the 2010 segment. He joked that his best pranking was telling someone they could have his show in five years, only to take it away immediately. Kimmel went on to say NBC ordered Leno off the air and called out Leno's phoney relationship with O'Brien.
"It’s not good TV for me because it started a whole thing that continues to this day, really," Leno told Bensinger. The Tonight Show host became public enemy #1 in the world of comedy. Kimmel, David Letterman, and Howard Stern were among those who piled on.
"But it’s okay, it’s alright. He’s a comic — you do what you gotta do," Leno continued. "I mean, I wouldn’t have done it, but that’s okay. That’s alright. It is what it is.”
Leno and Kimmel reportedly put the past behind them and ended their feud when Leno reached out to Kimmel following his son's 2017 hear surgery. It's unclear if that came before or after their awkward encounter at Ben Affleck's Christmas party.