windom

Ummm, it was just canceled: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv...ge-1235311065/

JeffTheAlpaca

That sucks

I wonder if he will ever come back with a talk show on another network or streamer.

I always wondered why FOX would not go after him when they are the only 3 letter network without a late night talk show?

Seinfeld reruns can't be that popular when you can stream that show.

You can promote the shit out of Leno on the NFL and their sports properties and also get guests on FOX shows to plug their shows.

Count Dooku

Apart from all the other considerations about what kind of show Leno puts out, and the audience it attracts, NBC demonstrated its loyalty to Leno, and Leno is old school enough to return that loyalty. He hosted a nightly talk show for 22 years, and did it part time for 6 years before that. I think he was done with the format.

Decker

Plus I doubt that there would be much mutual interest in doing a series with the former late night host that Fox and Hulu went out of their way to show the world what an insensitive and out of touch asshole he was in not one (American Crime Story : The People vs O. J. Simpson), not two (American Crime Story : Impeachment), but three (Pam & Tommy) limited series.

JeffTheAlpaca

Letterman did the same kind of jokes that Leno did during that time.

Count Dooku

If he did it at all, it was very rare for Letterman to make jokes about the OJ Simpson trial. It was actually a point of pride for him that his show did not make a nightly mockery of two people's brutal murders. Just saying.

Runaway

He managed that without the help of FX and Hulu, all by himself.

whotony

No he didn’t.

philo

Apples to oranges. Letterman barely bothered with his monologues. For Leno it was the centerpiece of his show. For it to be framed in those series that he was insensitive is a little hypocritical given Ryan Murphy has exploited one event after another for ratings. Audiences certainly didn't mind Leno joking about topics they were obsessed with at the time. It was a big reason they tuned in.

Decker

He comes off worse than Tommy Lee does in that new Pamela Anderson special on Netflix.

Count Dooku

20/20 hindsight from a post #MeToo POV in the context of a narrative that is trying to make Pamela sympathetic. Leno was not doing anything that, at the time, people thought was wrong. Now, for example, with some distance and evolution in people's thinking, we can see, and Murphy can portray, how Monica Lewinsky was unfairly treated like a punching bag by both Jay and Dave.

But none of this has anything to do with why FOX did not pursue Leno for a late night show in 2014. There is a short and simple answer: He was too old.

Josh-da-man

But he did make jokes about Menendez brothers, didn't he?

Decker

Patricide : Never not funny.

AaronHernandez

Had nothing to do with his age personally,but rather the median age of a Tonight Show viewer when he retired was collecting SSI.Even if he could have made money for Fox initally,signing him to a giant late night contract btwn cord cutting,an aging audience and overcrowded late night market seemed like a really bad 5-10 year player for Fox.

Count Dooku

So, following your implied logic, if I am married and cheat on my wife and get divorced, and then I remarry and am completely faithful to my second wife, it can never be acknowledged that I was a good husband in my second marriage, because I was a bad husband in my first.

I hope everyone in the world realizes that once they have done something bad, they should never try to do anything good, because it will never matter,

Count Dooku

six of one, half dozen of the other

He was old, his schtick was old, his audience was old

William Fuld

Alternate take: In the 90s Americans craved edgy, ruthless avant-garde comedy Leno mastered with the Dancing Itos and rejected the old fashioned, safe comedy of Letterman, like guessing what kind of pie his mother made for Thanksgiving.

Kurt D

Agreed. It def has opening monologue weakness to it, but it's not close to offensive. Might as well complain about articles that mention the accident or Renner's injuries.

JeffTheAlpaca

OJ and Pam Anderson or Lewinsky were the major topics for all the late night shows and Carson would have done the same jokes or covered the same material like Leno.

Paris Hilton complained about her interview with Letterman and called it cruel.

Give me a break where Leno is this total asshole and Letterman is a saint.

Personally I don't care if Leno, Conan, Letterman, etc made jokes about what was big in the news back or tabloid news and made jokes about it and now after the passage of time they are considered offensive.

https://www.instyle.com/celebrity/pa...rman-interview

https://www.buzzfeed.com/kaylayandol...d-famous-women

Count Dooku

Letterman didn't make OJ jokes during the trial, whereas Leno made it his nightly bread and butter. It's just a fact. Doesn't mean Letterman is a saint, and there is nothing posted to imply that he was one. Somewhat famously, he just didn't do something you said he did. Accept the correction in the spirit it was presented.

JeffTheAlpaca

Leno did not fuck his employees like Letterman did.

Who cares if he made OJ jokes when that guy murdered two people and lived a rich and glamorous life most people would envy.

Making jokes about OJ should not offend anybody except OJ.

whotony

Do you think someone said that oj jokes offend them?

Josh-da-man

He did fuck Johnny Carson, David Letterman, and Conan O'Brien, though.

Count Dooku

How old were you in 1995? It does not appear you have any understanding of what you are talking about. The "OJ Simpson jokes" being referenced are the things Jay Leno (and others) did that made mockery of the trial. What's "offensive" is that the brutal murders of two people and the effort to bring their killer to justice was treated as a sideshow, all just something to laugh about.
Ha-ha, the judge is an idiot. What a joke!
Oooo, are the prosecutors having an affair? Such juicy gossip!
Aaaah, Johnny Cochrane is saying the LAPD are all racists. That's an interesting tactic.

It's all just for shits and giggles, right?
Who cares if "for entertainment purposes only" the American people are told day after day and night after night that the American justice system is a just a joke to laugh about, because when it is all said and done, the jury will certainly do the serious work of finding the defendant, who very obviously committed the murders, guilty, right?

Seriously, you need to make some adjustment to your binary thinking. Praise for Letterman is not a condemnation of Leno, and criticism of Leno is not adulation of Letterman. You can list every shitty thing David Letterman ever did in his entire life, and it is not going to make Jay Leno's show funnier or more innovative, or make his interviews more interesting.

Letterman might be a complete asshole, and Leno might be a saint, but that will never change the fact that Leno's TV show was consistently mediocre from start to finish for over two decades.

Let me tack on that I think Seinfeld is the best sitcom ever, but it was a complete mistake and offensive that they did some OJ Simpson trial jokes. I did not mind them at the time, but I saw them for what they were later on. It's an unfortunate blemish on the show, imo.

Count Dooku

Regarding the Paris Hilton thing.

No reason anyone would remember this, but Daniel Craig was a guest on The Daily Show (pretty much) immediately after he married Rachel Weisz. It was a big get for TDS.

Craig did not want his marriage brought up AT ALL. I know from a publicist that was there, that Stewart had to give his personal assurance not to bring it up.

Did Letterman give his personal assurance not to bring up Hilton's jail stint? Or did her people tell his producers that she didn't want to talk about it, and they agreed? Because I find it hard to imagine Letterman making that deal. Hilton's jail stint was big news. I think CNN covered her release, live as breaking news. And then she was going to go on Letterman and talk about her perfume? Like how Hugh Grant was going to go on Jay Leno and not talk about getting caught with a prostitute?

David Letterman LOVED Julia Roberts, but when she came on his show after her break-up with Ben Bratt, he brought the uncomfortable subject up (in a very indelicate way). But there was no way she should have thought she could do a public interview and NOT talk about it, just a few weeks later.