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Feast of crow:
Jay Leno does 'Oprah'

He'll be returning to his old job as host of 'Tonight'

By Louisa Ada Seltzer
Jan 28, 2010

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Now it's Jay's turn.

After nearly three weeks of being skewered by the media, the blogosphere and rabid Team Conan fans, Jay Leno sits down today for his first post-debacle interview on the syndicated "The Oprah Winfrey Show." Check local listings for time.

"Oprah" is the place to appear after a fiasco of any kind. Whitney Houston's "sorry about the Bobby Brown era" interview last fall helped the singer kick off a comeback bid.

Sarah Palin appeared a couple months ago following an at-times disastrous vice presidential campaign. And it's been rumored for weeks that Tiger Woods will go on Winfrey's show to apologize for his myriad marital infidelities before returning to the PGA Tour.

So it came as no surprise that Leno chose Winfrey's show to present his side of the recent mess at NBC.

The short version: "The Jay Leno Show" was canceled after drawing low ratings and prompting a near-rebellion among affiliates. When NBC tried to move Leno to 11:35 p.m. and bump "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" to 12:05 a.m., O'Brien balked and eventually walked with a $33 million exit package. Leno will be back at the "Tonight" desk in March.

As the underdog in the drama, O'Brien received a lot of public sympathy. And the media, who have never cared much for Leno's lower-brow humor and folksy appeal, battered him, as did fellow late-night comics David Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel.

Winfrey won't be easy on Leno, either. Clips released yesterday show her asking him pointed questions such as "Did you ever think, 'I'm taking away Conan's dream?'"

O'Brien was invited to appear on the show as well, but he apparently declined. Leno does admit that he has not spoken with O'Brien since the whole debacle began.

The show will probably generate decent ratings, as "Oprah" always does. Last week her show averaged a 4.6 Nielsen household rating, ranking fifth among all syndicated shows.

A look at this week’s top TV draws
THURSDAY, JANUARY 28
Time	Network	Program	Description
7 p.m.	ESPN	“College Basketball” (S)	Good Big Ten matchup between Wisconsin and Purdue.
8 p.m.	Fox	“Bones” (D)	A dentist’s remains are found in a trench at a Civil War battle site.
8 p.m.	CW	“The Vampire Diaries” (D)	A new vampire comes to town, and Stefan and Damon try to figure out his story.
9 p.m.	ESPN	“Winter X Games” (S)	The 14th annual event begins in Aspen, Colo.
10 p.m.	Bravo	“Real Housewives of Orange County” (R)	Lynne asks her mother for advice about her daughters.
10 p.m.	Lifetime	“Project Runway” (R)	Personalities clash as the designers work in pairs.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 29
Time	Network	Program	Description
8 p.m.	CW	“Smallville” (D)	Archer battles his former mentor.
9 p.m.	Fox	“Kitchen Nightmares” (R)	Season premiere. Ramsay starts the season by visiting a restaurant in Philadelphia.
9 p.m.	Syfy	“Caprica” (D)	Zoe’s avatar tries to get used to living in the body of a robot.
10 p.m.	Food Network	“The Best Thing I Ever Ate” (N)	Food Network personalities dish about their favorite meat dishes.
10 p.m.	TLC	“Miss America: Behind the Curtain” (R)	A look at preparations for the 2010 Miss America pageant.
10 p.m.	Travel Channel	“Most Haunted” (R)	A house in Liverpool, England, may be haunted by a former resident.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 30
Time	Network	Program	Description
1 p.m.	CBS	“College Basketball” (S)	Interesting nonconference game between Duke and Georgetown.
7 p.m.	ESPN	“College Basketball” (S)	Should be a good game between in-state rivals Kansas and Kansas State.
8 p.m.	Fox	“Cops” (R)	A park ranger in Tulsa can’t get a man to stop.
9 p.m.	Lifetime	“Lying to be Perfect” (M)	A magazine editor moonlights as an online advice columnist.
9 p.m.	Syfy	“Meteor Storm” (M)	A rash of meteors begins hitting San Francisco.
10 p.m.	Spike TV	“UFC 107” (S)	Live event should draw a good amount of young male viewers.
SUNDAY, JANUARY 31
Time	Network	Program	Description
1 p.m.	CBS	“College Basketball” (S)	Either Florida-Tennessee or Minnesota-Ohio State.
7:20 p.m.	ESPN	“NFL Football” (S)	The annual Pro Bowl game, this year from Miami.
8 p.m.	Fox	“The Simpsons” (C)	Homer buys a lottery ticket that may be worth $1 million.
8 p.m.	CBS	“Grammy Awards” (A)	The 52nd annual event, this year from the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
9 p.m.	HBO	“Big Love” (D)	Home Plus is audited and the results could affect Bill’s political aspirations. Of course so could that three wives thing.
10 p.m.	E!	“Keeping Up with the Kardashians” (R)	The girls have a weekend from hell.
A = awards show or special, C = comedy, D = drama, DD = daytime drama, G = game show, K = kids, M = movie, N = news/documentary, R = reality, S = sports, T = talk/variety show.