Talk show icon Jay Leno gave his support to former late-night rival Jimmy Kimmel after he was forced off air in a MAGA backlash, despite the previous bad blood between the pair.
“I’m on Jimmy Kimmel’s side on that one,” Leno told reporters on Thursday during a ceremony honoring journalist Chris Wallace with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Kimmel once accused Leno of having “sold out” and then “humiliated” him on his own talk show.
ABC suspended Kimmel’s show indefinitely on Wednesday, after official threats against the network over a joke he made on Monday about Donald Trump mourning the death of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
When asked if he could have imagined an incident like the Kimmel furore when he was on air, Leno said on Thursday, “Yeah, these kind of things happen all the time.”
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno ran on NBC between 1992 and 2014.
“But you know, you don’t get cancelled saying popular things,” he added. “Usually it’s the truth that winds up getting [you] cancelled, so we’ll see what happens.”
The 75-year-old noted, “It’s a comedian talking. If you don’t like it, don’t watch it... Let the people decide. If people like a show, it stays on the air. I mean, that’s as simple as that. I enjoy Jimmy. I like all the guys. I think they’re really talented. I like jokes. That’s why I watch them.”
Leno added, “I think Jimmy will land on his feet. He’s a talented guy. He’s funny. And let’s see what happens. Maybe he might be on in just a couple of weeks again. So, we’ll see.”
The kind words are a turnaround from a podcast interview in April this year where Leno reflected on letting Kimmel “humiliate” him on his own show as one of the biggest “mistakes” of his career.
Speaking on In Depth With Graham Bensinger, Leno referenced Kimmel’s appearance on The Tonight Show in 2010. Conan O’Brien had been told by NBC that he would take over hosting the show from Leno, which eventually happened in 2009.
However, in 2010, O’Brien left NBC after his show was pushed back to accommodate a brand new Leno late-night show. Leno then returned to host The Tonight Show until Jimmy Fallon took over in 2014.
During his appearance on The Tonight Show in January 2010, Kimmel spoke about the O’Brien situation. When asked by Leno about his best prank, Kimmel said, “I told a guy that five years from now I’m going to give you my show, and then when the five years came, I gave it to him, and then I took it back almost instantly.”
Kimmel later called it “probably my proudest moment.”
Leno said letting Kimmel “humiliate me on my own show” was a mistake.
“I trusted somebody,” he said in April. “It started a whole thing that continues to this day really. He’s a comic. You do what you got to do. OK. I mean, I wouldn’t have done it, but that’s OK. It is what it is.”
During a 2013 interview with Rolling Stone in the wake of the drama over Leno and O’Brien, Kimmel said, “Leno hasn’t been a good stand-up in 20 years.”
He added, “As a comedian, you can’t not have disdain for what he’s done. He totally sold out. He was a master chef who opened a Burger King.”
