Andy Richter subbed for a vacationing Regis Philbin today on Live! With Regis and Kelly, and though he joked about needing to tread lightly — “I have children! I still need work!” — he spoke candidly about Jay Leno’s return to The Tonight Show. (Video after the jump.) Asked by Kelly Ripa if he harbored any ill feelings toward NBC and Leno, he answered “Yes. Yes, I do.” He explained the short-sighted logic behind the network giving Leno a 10 p.m. chat show to save money, and how we should interpret the network’s decision to fault Conan O’Brien’s Tonight Show for its own drop in ratings. ”The thing about network television is, if they like a show, if there’s extenuating circumstances they’ll say, ‘Well, you have to think about the extenuating circumstances.’ Like for us, our low ratings being a result of our low lead-in. But if they don’t like the show, they’ll say, ‘Well, they couldn’t get the ratings.’ Which they weren’t saying that about the local news…. Like all of a sudden, the local news somehow got bad. Like the local news got 25 to 50 percent worse than it was.”
Of Leno he said: “It’s very frustrating when somebody says, and especially when they’re on videotape saying, ‘I’m gonna take this No. 1 show and hand it over and hope that the next guy makes it a No. 1 show’ and then doesn’t, and says things like, ‘You know, well, I didn’t have any choice. They wouldn’t let me out of my contract.’ Which, you know how multi-millionaires are always being forced to do things they don’t want to do. It’s frustrating. It’s very frustrating.”
Ripa also asked if the rumors of Conan O’Brien and Richter touring were true. Andy played coy at first but then said, “It is a distinct possibility.” The two eventually moved on to other hot topics, like breast milk cheese (which they sampled). Shockingly, Conan has yet to tweet about that.
Preach it, Andy! It’s so refreshing to get such an honest response. Grease monkey Leno can learn something.
NBC should have never asked Leno to leave in the first place. How can you blame him for wanting his job back that he was pushed out of? He just tried to put on a happy face and make the best out of a bad situation that the NBC execs made. Conan will be fine. That’s the nature of TV/Entertainment. You have to take a risk if you want the reward. No one’s job is guaranteed, especially in this economy. People move across the country every day for a new job with no guarantee that they will have it for more than nine months. Conan and Andy need to stop playing the victim and take responsibility for their own lives and not blame their failures on anyone else, especially Jay Leno. Grow up!
Then why wasn’t Leno fired after his horrible 10pm ratings? Leno’s nose is so far up Zucker’s taint it make me sick.
Ummm, he kind of was. They cancelled his 10:00 show and moved him back to the Tonight Show. Have you not followed any of this?
Please. You want to by a bridge in Brooklyn? Good price.
I don’t buy anything out of Leno’s mouth. He has gone on record to say that he is a liar.
buy.
Okay D…you can go back to your desk at NBC now. You’ve successfully planted the latest untruthful network spin for today. Now, Zucker needs you to shine his head.
Has anyone noticed that Jay’s show seems to have more commercials? his monologue is like 2 minutes shorter – the first skit/headlines ends 2 minutes shorter and the first guest 2 minutes = extra 6 minutes of commercials per hour could equal to near 1 mil a month – 10 mil a year — which I assume if for recouping the Conan payout
I love how Elgin has to resort to immature behavior because he can’t actually dispute the facts. Elgin, if you want to convince people of your argument, I’d suggest not resorting to fallacies that are painfully obvious. You’re not fooling anyone, except maybe yourself.
No one asked Leno to leave; he RETIRED – twice! Conan waited an adiitional 5 years to host The Tonight Show. The second time contractual obligations forced Leno to actually leave. He should have had the good grace to just let it go.
Sorry PJ, but he didn’t retire either time. I’m not sure where you came up with that nonsense. I suggest you actually go back and watch the video of the announcement he made in 2004.
Conan made the big mistake. He should have just taken the 1/2 hour bump back and everybody would have been happy. He blew it.
And completely ruin the Tonight Show franchise?
Horrible idea. I would rather have him stand up for himself than just bend over and do whatever NBC wants. They promised him The Tonight Show–which means 11:35.
That’s right! Who’s to say they wouldn’t have pushed him further later on. Like after Jimmy’s show. You give a little and they take a lot.
@ Michelle,
How is moving it back half an hour ruining the franchise? As the way I see it, it could only help as Conan couldn’t do any worse at midnight than he was doing at 11:35. He was already struggling before Jay Leno returned in the fall @ 10 pm, so blaming Leno for his poor ratings is just a baldface lie that Conan’s followers seem desperate to perpetuate.
If you push The Tonight Show back a half hour, it no longer becomes The TONIGHT Show. It becomes The Tomorrow Morning Show.
Compromise? What about integrity? I suppose if you’re a Leno fan, it doesn’t matter.
How come this wasn’t a problem for Conan and his followers when his show was pushed back to 12:05 during Wimbledon in the summer? Also, how come this wasn’t a problem when he was on a show called “Late Night”? I mean, in both cases, his show was technically airing the next day. Also, you do realize that the Tonight Show runs into the next day also. Sorry Tom, but this just seems like another excuse that has no weight whatsoever.
Blow air me, talulah! YOU and, like, three other people would have ben happy. The rest of us are idealists.
So I guess you would rather have him where he is — off the air. It’s called compromise rather than all or nothing. So you got nothing.
Remember the story about Conan’s contract a few weeks ago? NBC tried to move Conan past midnight so they could avoid paying Jay the $150M penalty in Jay’s contract (which Jay agreed to waive if they gave him back 11:35). NBC threatened Conan and claimed that his contract said nothing about when the Tonight Show was supposed to air. Only it turned out that Conan’s contract was very specific that the Tonight Show was the thing that aired right after the news. I think at this point Conan realized that NBC and Jay were huge liars and that he just didn’t want to work with them anymore.
Elgin,
Please don’t put words in the mouth of Conan O’Brien. He’s a big boy and can speak for himself. He doesn’t need some fanboi trying to be his spokesperson, and espousing lies left, right, and center about him.
Why couldn’t Jay have come on after Jimmy Fallon, if he only needed to “fulfill his contract to NBC?” Why did everyone have to make room for him?
Yes, I’m with you on that one. Too much pride leads you nowhere. Now he has NO SHOW…rather than a LATER SHOW.
This was about the reputation of the Tonight Show, not pride.
We get it that you guys don’t like Leno. But it’s funny that you’ll still push any little insult by people who hate Leno as news(though really, who expects Andy Richter to be a Leno supporter), yet you don’t mention much how Leno is beating Letterman in the ratings. Oh, you’ve brought it up, but instead of going to Leno and asking him how it feels, you’re still airing the bitter words of those who don’t like him. And I’m not a big Leno fan, it’s just all this anger towards him has kind of made him out to be the underdog. And yet, with everyone sniping at him and his show, he just goes to work and gets the ratings. And really, that little snide remard about “multimillionaires”, well, unless Conan has the spending habit of Michael Jackson or Hammer, I would think he’d have to be a “multimillionaire” as well.
Funny you should mention Leno Vs Letterman in the ratings. Leno’s ratings have slid considerably and Letterman will probably overtake him quite soon. Last night’s ratings were unbelievably close. In fact, it looks like Letterman beat Leno in the precious 18-49 demo.
Also, in regards to the millionaires jibe, Andy is right. Jay Leno could never have been forced into doing anything. That’s a fact and his status in the business has everything to do with it.
The Conan example you’ve used just negates your point. Conan couldn’t be forced into pushing the show back and NBC had to buy out his contract. Leno could have forced their hand in the same way, but instead he didn’t.
Also, given that Andy has more inside information than any of us, I would say that if he’s angry at Leno he’s got very good reason.
You realize Leno was beating Letterman for years before this right? It’s kind of the reason they brought him back.
yeah, except now nobody likes him.
And that was only after Hugh Grant appeared in light of the Divine Brown scandal. Things might have been different otherwise.
azul120,
With all due respect, if you’re trying to attribute Leno’s success to luck, then you could just as easily attribute Conan’s success for all his years at Late Night due to the fact he had a strong lead-in from the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. It’s a two-way street … you can’t have your cake and eat it too.
Hey terry, Toyota sold more cars than Chevy. How’s that working out for them?
I think Andy Richter is more than just any person who hates Leno. This is the closest thing anyone has to a real response from Conan’s side. I think it is definitely newsworthy.
Did you happen to catch the report that said Leno’s return to The Tonight Show attracted less viewers than Conan’s debut last year?
Too bad Conan couldn’t keep it going.
Leno doesn’t have Leno in front of him, killing his lead-in and siphoning off his audience.
elgin,
What about the summer when Conan was getting his ass handed to him by Letterman in the ratings? Meanwhile, Leno wasn’t on the air at all before him. What about then? The bottom line is all these Conan bandwagon fans weren’t watching, and that’s why Conan’s now out of a show. You only started watching when NBC decided to make changes.
My POINT is that I don’t think this is news. This late night war crap is so over. And as I said, I’m not a Leno fan. Nor am I a Conan or Letterman fan. If you were being honest, you’d see that all their shows are lame and pretty unfunny. One may be better on a given night, but I’ve watched all of their shows repeatedly and eventually just got tired of them. You know what the punchline’s gonna be as soon as they do their setup. Late night has basically sucked since the shows transitioned from talk shows that had some humor, to flat out comdey shows. I do like Craig Ferguson, and like it when he is actually having a conversation with a guest as he did recently. I also think is much funnier than the others and doesn’t just go for the easy punchline. Oh, and maybe Letterman will overtake Leno. I don’t realy care since as I said, don’t watch either one of them. Bugt I bet if he does, there will be a big deal written about it on this site.
The news aspect (and remember, this is an entertainment news site so the threshold for what constitutes as news should differ from CNN) is that this is the first time one of the faces of Conan’s TS has spoken about the issue since going off the air. It doesn’t matter who is funny or who has ratings – it’s interesting to some people because this is the 1st public comment.
Well, ok. To you it’s news, to me it is more whining by people I don’t care about or respect. Some people just move on, others, can’t.
terry…..Then shut the heck up…if you don’t care..why are you wasting your time commenting on it? Do you have so little to do in your life that you want to spend time posting on things you don’t care about?? Get a life
Trish,
How about you watch your language?
I started watching half way through the show, I am glad I have a DVR so i rewound and saw the beginning. Good for Andy for being honest. I miss Coco
Last night Leno beat Letterman again, even with an anaemic 10:00 ‘lead-in’.
He didn’t have another talk show as a lead in though did he?
Also, he barely beat Letterman. His ratings have slid from the initial interest and if they continue to slide Letterman will be on top. The ratings argument is complete BS.
Leno has been beating Letterman for 17 years. Letterman can only be on top of his female staffers, but he has been under Leno for all his career.
No, he had the same lead-in Conan had, the local news.
And the local news’ ratings were in the toilet for the time that “The Jay Leno Show” was on at 10, because of a bad lead-in. A show negatively affected by a bad lead-in becomes a bad lead-in itself. Not really that hard to understand…except for the Lowest Common Denominator (aka Leno fans).
Lay Jeno, you don’t seem to understand the domino effect. The Tonight Show’s ratings are impacted by the local news, and the local news’ ratings are impacted by what comes before it. The later you go, the more viewers you tend to lose. So with Leno greatly underperforming at 10pm compared to the usual drama series, of course the rest of the night is going to underperform as well.
The fact is, Conan was doing fine until Leno’s 10pm show came along, which proved a lousy lead-in to the affiliate news, which in turn became a lousy lead-in for Conan.
Get your facts straight Jack. Leno was getting beaten by Letterman until Hugh Grant came on the show during the Divine Brown scandal.
azul120,
Get your facts right. Letterman may have beat Leno initially 15+ years ago, but Leno beat him consistent ever since then. You seem desperate to distort the truth by omitting relevant facts. If you’re going to try to convince people of your argument, maybe it would be best not to try to omit such obvious facts that contradict your entire argument’s basis.
and more people watched Avatar than The Hurt Locker. You brought nothing to the table.
Last night, Leno barely beat Letterman. In the days of old, Leno consistently beat Letterman by a substantial margin, usually by a million each night. Now, he’s down to about less than half of that, and falling. At the current rate of collapse, I very much look forward to NBC buying out Leno’s contract and replacing him with Johnny Carson’s ghost in seven months’ time.
Love Andy, thought he did a wonderful job on the show this morning.
Can’t wait to see him if he does go on tour with Conan.
The Tonight Show is back to where it was before: Beating Letterman. And folks, it doesn’t have Friends or ER as a lead-in. It’s lead-in is just as weak and Jay got the job done that Conan couldn’t. We can snipe all we want at Jay, but it’s obvious we are the minority and the silent majority are all on the Leno train.
Also, everyone piling on Jay relentlessly probably helped him too. To some extent, it made him sympathetic since people kept joining the fray and pouncing on him from all angles.
Gawd help you if your hitchin’ your wagon to Leno. It’s going to be a fast downward spiral.
I agree re the silent majority. Same reason we haven’t yet had health care reform. Most Leno fans don’t do the internet. Its too complicated for them to understand.
Mike, maybe you should refrain from perpetuating stereotypes that are completely unfounded. You only coming off as sounding uneducated.
The difference is, he’s *barely* beating Letterman this time around. He’s been back a week, and after an initial few days of strong ratings, he’s already dropping like a stone. Letterman’s won the 18-49 demographic on Monday, and the overall ratings are neck-and-neck.
After a week!
Jay had just as much of a rough start as Conan for the first couple years of his first run, until Hugh Grant appeared in the aftermath of the Divine Brown scandal.
I am predicting the future.
1. I predict exactly another 146 “Team Coco! Right on! I HATE Jay Leno” posts by loser, lonely, friendless Entertainment Weekly readers with no jobs and no life.
2. I predict exactly 4 posts to the effect of “If we’re such losers, how come YOU’RE posting.” Ah, you got me there, Einsteins!
3. I predict 0 posts that realize it’s over. Conan may go to Fox or cable but he’s NEVER going to beat Jay. Conan’s NEVER going to be widely popular. Ken Tucker will NEVER stop hating on Jay Leno. Letterman’s NEVER going to regularly beat Jay.
Team Coco lost. Please stop loitering on the field.
Brian Wallace
Hi, I’m Brian Wallace, and I jerk off manually.
How else would you jerk off?
The Leno way. Jeff Zucker.
Wow, do you even understand humor? I only ask because they wasn’t even funny. Also, impersonating other people on the internet is just childish.
Brian,
You are right in predicting that we’d call you a loser. Anyone who defends Leno deserves that honor. I also can’t stand people who think that because something is wildly popular that it is better.
Larry the Cable Guy, George Lopez, & Jeff Dunham are also all wildly popular. It’s because they aim at the lowest common denominator and some moron yuks it up.
Miley Cyrus and The Jonas Brothers are obviously musical geniuses since they sell so many albums, right?
And Valentine’s Day is an amazing film, along with Paul Blart Mall cop correct?
HL Mencken’s quote is famous for a reason: ““Nobody Ever Went Broke Underestimating the Stupidity of the American People ”
Lots of people out there don’t want to be challenged and like their entertainment lazy and predictable. They are the same people that believe everything they hear is true, and don’t want to question authority.
It just sucks that I have to live with those people (i.e. sheep), but that’s the way it is.
Hey, fun game. Might I play as well?
Predicting the future.
1. Leno’s inflated ratings from his premiere week continue to disintegrate, to the point where Leno and Letterman begin to trade wins nightly.
2. Disgruntled Leno fans are suddenly stripped of their only consistent talking point: that Jay Leno has always been number 1 and always will be. Unsure of what to fall back upon, most do what Leno’s audience has already begun to do: disappear.
3. In September, Conan debuts his show on FOX. That’s when the real game begins, and anyone who claims that Jay Leno will NEVER be beaten is fooling themselves.
I guess time will tell which one of us is the better in clairvoyance. Personally, I like my chances better.
Why exactly do you think Leno will lose to Letterman? He was beating him for years. Sounds like wishful thinking to me. You know what esle was wishful thinking? Thinking Conan could keep his job even though none of you Coco fans actaully supported him.
Wishful thinking? Chief, it ain’t wishful thinking that Letterman will beat Leno. It’s all official-like now. Letterman BEAT Leno last night. Monday’s “Late Show with David Letterman” beat “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” in adults 18-49 and adults 25-54, the demographics that matter to advertisers. That’s according to preliminary fast national Nielsen data just released.
But hey, if it makes you feel better, Leno is still number one amongst viewers over the age of 54, which won’t earn NBC a single dime, but I bet it might make you feel a little better. For some reason.
This seems about right. While Leno, Conan, and Letterman haven’t covered themselves in glory though, let’s be clear, this debacle is all NBCs fault.
Joke post, right?
Letterman’s ratings will continue to fall along with his own fall from grace- I used to watch him as did several people I know but that was before I realized what a lying cheating womanizer he is. I can’t look or listen to him now without contempt- I used to think of him as this funny, yet unattractive man- seeing him as feeling entitled to whatever cute young woman works for him makes me sick.
The “whatever cute young woman that works for him” didn’t say NO to him though, did she? Why is it all his fault? I’m not saying I agree with the fact that he was cheating on his girlfriend/wife but she could have turned him down. And I never read where she was complaining about the way she was treated…if her ex hadn’t tried to make a fast buck, I bet the story about his affairs would never have come to light. Again, I’m not saying Dave is lily-white, but it’s his private life. And it takes two to tango…
Why is is his fault? Well, because SHE didn’t make a promise not to sleep with him. And once you’ve had a job, and understands the power over your life a boss has, you’ll never ask why is it wrong for a boss to sleep with an employee.
I would much rather watch a womanizer like letterman than a weazel like leno..I used to DVR leno only because there might be someone interesting on I wanted to see…then I realized that even if the person was interesting…Leno made it an unwatchable interview…And yes…Lenos ratings will continue to fall because any interest from him coming back is gone, and people realize it’s the same crappy show it has always been…predictable and dumb…and if it doesn’t this week, wait a few more months until his fans start dying off or going into nursing homes where lights are out by 11pm…
And I forgot to mention that not only is Jay more entertaining, he brings out the best in his guests where often Letterman is so intent on being sarcastic and clever, he comes off as rude and the guests often appear miffed or tongue-tied-Jay wins on every level. Letterman showed his true colors as a human being which gives me a great excuse to never watch him, even when Jays on re-runs.
go feed your 12 cats.
Please. Several celebrities have gone on record saying that Leno is a HORRIBLE interviewer. He doesn’t even look the people in the eyes half the tim!
time, not tim
I’m sick of Conan being such a cry baby.
I totally blame him for showing his stupidity. If he would have played ball with the network he would still have a show…case closed. Leno is not even in the playing field. All the night shows are terrible anyway. Give me Nightline any time.
He’ll have a show come this September. You can blame Conan for standing up for himself, but stupid isn’t the word I’d use to describe it. If you liked where you worked and your boss asked you to do something that denigrated the prestige and honor of that place of business as well as belittled your own contribution to it, well I’d just call you a little b*tch.
Please come to Seattle. Please come to Seattle. Richter and O’Brien. Now.
I tried watching Conan for two weeks. He was terrible.
His ratings were bad because he is bad. I know he has a few loyal fans, but he isn’t funny and he clearly wasn’t comfortable in the show
Just doing a survey: are you over the age of 50? Are you college educated? Republican or Democrat?
Does anybody still care about this? Nobody died, and none of this will matter in five years.
What happens in 5 years? Are you saying the world is going to end in 5 years? What do you know!? Tell us so we have a chance!!!!!!!!
Ummm…who actually sits around and checks the television ratings everyday? You people have WAY too much time on your hands…(sigh)
Jamie, if you were a TV show your ratings would be abysmal.
you try too hard, Lay Jeno. Pick your battles, son.