Comedian Jay Leno (Born 1950 in New Rochelle, NY) was the longtime host of the late night NBC show “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno”. He replaced Johnny Carson as host of the show in 1992. He has earned an Emmy Award for his work on “The Tonight Show” and continues to enjoy a successful career as a stand-up comedian, frequently touring the Country during breaks from his show. On Mar. 19, 2009 he became the first late night host to interview a sitting US President when President Obama appeared on “The Tonight Show”. In the summer of 2009 he turned over The Tonight Show to Conan O’Brien and started his own primetime show, “The Jay Leno Show” in September of 2009. Within a few months, the ratings on the show had fallen and a number of NBC affiliates complained that the ratings on their local newscasts were down due to the poor lead-in from Leno’s show. In early 2010, NBC decided to cancel The Jay Leno Show and decided to put Leno back at 11:30pm following the late local news which would result in The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien being pushed back till a 12:05am start. O’Brien refused this move saying it would kill the Tonight Show franchise which had been in the same time slot for nearly 60 years. A very public feud then erupted between NBC, O’Brien, and Leno. It was later announced that Conan O’Brien would leave the network, after being paid a sum of up to $40 Million dollars by NBC and that later in the Winter, the Tonight Show would again air with Jay Leno returned as Host.
