History YMMV / TheTonightShowWithJayLeno

* OvershadowedByControversy: Leno's public image was permanently damaged by his perceived role in the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Tonight_Show_conflict 2010 Tonight Show conflict]]. Regardless of whether or not it's fair, Leno's conduct gave the impression that he was behaving possessively towards ''The Tonight Show'' and simply didn't want to give up hosting it. ''The Jay Leno Show'' was perceived as an intentional gambit to undermine O'Brien, his "I'm just following the bosses' orders" response to the controversy was seen as disingenuous and his willingness to go along with NBC's plan to bump ''The Tonight Show'' to midnight to put ''The Jay Leno Show'' at 11:35PM gave the impression that he had been angling to take ''The Tonight Show'' back from Creator/ConanOBrien the whole time.[[note]]Creator/HowardStern accurately predicted this in 2006 when he told O'Brien during an interview on ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' that he doesn't believe that Leno would ever give up ''The Tonight Show'' willingly.[[/note]] O'Brien's willingless to give up hosting ''The Tonight Show'' to preserve the show's integrity lead to the majority of the public siding with him and against Leno. Additionally, a 2004 clip from one of his monologues in which he said ''The Tonight Show'' was a "dynasty" that didn't belong to one person and that he was happy to hand the show over to O'Brien in 2009 was [[NeverLiveItDown relentlessly used against him]]. This lead to a friend of Leno commenting to ''The Los Angeles Times'', "The thing Leno should do is walk, period. He's got everything to lose in terms of public popularity by going back. People will look at him differently. He'll be viewed as the bad guy." The damage to his reputation cut even deeper among his peers, who almost unanimously sided with O'Brien and offered scathing public criticism of Leno - Creator/JimmyKimmel did an entire episode of ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' impersonating Leno and later [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcKpf6k3j5I&ab_channel=TheYoungTurks confronted Leno about the controversy]] on ''The Jay Leno Show''.[[note]]'''Leno:''' What's the best prank you've ever pulled? '''Kimmel:''' [...] I think the best prank I ever pulled was, I told a guy once, "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 I took it back, almost instantly.[[/note]] As Creator/PattonOswalt put it, "Comedians who don't like Jay Leno now, and I'm one of them, we're not like, "Jay Leno sucks;" it's that we're so hurt and disappointed that one of the best comedians of our generation… willfully has shut the switch off."

* ValuesDissonance: A 1998 monologue Leno gave about the Monica Lewinsky scandal received renewed attention and scrutiny in the late 2010s as Leno's jokes were seen as being little more than slut shaming Lewinsky while letting UsefulNotes/BillClinton completely off the hook for his own behavior. Nobody had any issue with Leno's material when the episode aired, as they matched the general public opinion at the time - keep in mind that Clinton's approval rating ''went up'' during the scandal. The renewed scrutiny on Leno's handling of the scandal came during a significant public reevaluation of Bill Clinton's scandals and sexual misconduct allegations in light of the Me Too movement and his ties to the infamous billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein coming to light.
* VindicatedByHistory: The show had Johnny Carson's ''Tonight Show'' in its shadow for quite a while, and the ''Jay Leno Show'' debacle in 2009-2010 earned ire from some longtime viewers who were also Conan fans. But many now appreciate the show for the monologue- one of Leno's fortes, and because it was one of the last talk shows not to overly mine politics for its jokes (though to be fair, it certainly made its fair share). Plus many of the recurring segments (Headlines, Jaywalking) were guaranteed hilarity, something which wasn't appreciated at the time because [[StrictlyFormula they were done so frequently.]]

** It's now known in hindsight that NBC was the main antagonist in the conflict and ExecutiveMeddling played a much bigger role than was previously known. It turns out that when Leno described the conflict as "all business" and stated that the real issue at play was that "NBC [stands for] 'Never Believe Your Contract'", he was correct. In 2001, rival network Fox was going all out to poach O'Brien for a 11:00PM show. Still stung by how David Letterman's departure to CBS ended NBC's monopoly on the 11:35PM timeslot and proved that a ''Tonight Show'' competitor could be viable with the right host now that Creator/JohnnyCarson was gone (and having just finishing repairing the damage his departure had done), NBC feared a deja vu with O'Brien. NBC signed O'Brien to a contract extension that promised he would eventually take over as host of ''The Tonight Show'' in order to retain him.[[note]]O'Brien's circle urged him to take the Fox deal as it was so much more lucrative, but O'Brien stayed at NBC because he dreamed of hosting ''The Tonight Show''.[[/note]] Observers have opined that this may have just been a cynical gambit to avoid increasing O'Brien's salary to match what Fox offering and to bring down ''The Tonight Show'''s production cost as O'Brien was being paid significantly less than Leno. Nonetheness, NBC didn't inform Leno of their decision until they extended his contract in 2004, which devastated Leno, who felt like NBC was effectively firing him despite his success hosting the show. As 2009 approached, NBC then realized they were staring down the same dilemma they had with O'Brien but with possibly worse consequences - by kicking Leno off ''The Tonight Show'' while still in his prime and being uneasy about retirement, they were now opening the door to Leno being poached by another network and possibly devastating [[Series/TheTonightShowWithConanOBrien O'Brien's iteration of ''The Tonight Show'']] by being put on as counter-programming in the same timeslot.[[note]]Jimmy Kimmel has claimed that ABC was indeed trying to poach Leno to host a 11:35 PM''Tonight Show'' competitor as his tenure with NBC was reaching its end.[[/note]] NBC then scrambled to retain Leno and find somewhere else for him in their lineup, giving birth to ''The Jay Leno Show''.

* GrowingTheBeard: It's generally agreed that it took a couple of years for the show to come together, with Jay only truly becoming comfortable when Kevin Eubanks became the bandleader and they began building a rapport.

** It's now known in hindsight that NBC was the main antoganist in the conflict and ExecutiveMeddling played a much bigger role in the conflict than was previously known. It turns out that when Leno described the conflict as "all business" and stated that the real issue at play was that "NBC [stands for] 'Never Believe Your Contract'", he was correct. In 2001, rival network Fox was going all out to poach O'Brien for a 11:00PM show. Still stung by how David Letterman's departure to CBS ended NBC's monopoly on the 11:35PM timeslot and proved that a ''Tonight Show'' competitor could be viable with the right host now that Creator/JohnnyCarson was gone (and having just finishing repairing the damage his departure had done), NBC feared a deja vu with O'Brien. NBC signed O'Brien to a contract extension that promised he would eventually take over as host of ''The Tonight Show'' in order to retain him.[[note]]O'Brien's circle urged him to take the Fox deal as it was so much more lucrative, but O'Brien stayed at NBC because he dreamed of hosting ''The Tonight Show''.[[/note]] Observers have opined that this may have just been a cynical gambit to avoid increasing O'Brien's salary to match what Fox offering and to bring down ''The Tonight Show'''s production cost as O'Brien was being paid significantly less than Leno. Nonetheness, NBC didn't inform Leno of their decision until they extended his contract in 2004, which devastated Leno, who felt like NBC was effectively firing him despite his success hosting the show. As 2009 approached, NBC then realized they were staring down the same dilemma they had with O'Brien but with possibly worse consequences - by kicking Leno off ''The Tonight Show'' while still in his prime and being uneasy about retirement, they were now opening the door to Leno being poached by another network and possibly devastating [[Series/TheTonightShowWithConanOBrien O'Brien's iteration of ''The Tonight Show'']] by being put on as counter-programming in the same timeslot.[[note]]Jimmy Kimmel has claimed that ABC was indeed trying to poach Leno to host a 11:35 PM''Tonight Show'' competitor as his tenure with NBC was reaching its end.[[/note]] NBC then scrambled to retain Leno and find somewhere else for him in their lineup, giving birth to ''The Jay Leno Show''.

* ValuesDissonance: A 1998 monologue Leno gave about the Monica Lewinsky scandal received renewed attention and scrutiny in the late 2010s as Leno's jokes were seen as being little more than slut shaming Lewinsky while letting UsefulNotes/BillClinton completely off the hook for his own behavior. Nobody had any issue with Leno's material when the episode aired, as they matched the general public opinion at the time - keep in mind that Clinton's approval rating ''went up'' during the scandal. The renewed scrutiny on Leno's handling of the scandal came during a significant public reevaluation of Bill Clinton's scandals and sexual misconduct allegations in light of the Me Too movement.

* OvershadowedByControversy: Leno's public image was permanently damaged by his perceived role in the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Tonight_Show_conflict 2010 Tonight Show conflict]]. Regardless of whether or not it's fair, Leno's conduct gave the impression that he was behaving possessively towards ''The Tonight Show'' and simply didn't want to give up hosting it. ''The Jay Leno Show'' was perceived as an intentional gambit to undermine O'Brien, his "I'm just following the bosses' orders" response to the controversy was seen as disingenuous and his willingness to go along with NBC's plan to bump ''The Tonight Show'' to midnight to put ''The Jay Leno Show'' at 11:35PM gave the impression that he had been angling to take ''The Tonight Show'' back from Creator/ConanOBrien the whole time.[[note]]Creator/HowardStern accurately predicted this in 2006 when he told O'Brien during an interview on ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' that he doesn't believe that Leno would ever give up ''The Tonight Show'' willingly.[[/note]] O'Brien's willingless to give up hosting ''The Tonight Show'' to preserve the show's integrity lead to the majority of the public siding with him and against Leno. Additionally, a 2004 clip from one of his monologues in which he said ''The Tonight Show'' was a "dynasty" that didn't belong to one person and that he was happy to hand the show over to O'Brien in 2009 was [[NeverLiveItDown relentlessly used against him]]. This lead to a friend of Leno commenting to ''The Los Angeles Times'', "The thing Leno should do is walk, period. He's got everything to lose in terms of public popularity by going back. People will look at him differently. He'll be viewed as the bad guy." The damage to his reputation cut even deeper among his peers, who almost unanimously sided with O'Brien and offered scathing public criticism of Leno - Creator/JimmyKimmel took it UpToEleven by doing an entire episode of ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' impersonating Leno and later [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcKpf6k3j5I&ab_channel=TheYoungTurks confronted Leno about the controversy]] on ''The Jay Leno Show''.[[note]]'''Leno:''' What's the best prank you've ever pulled? '''Kimmel:''' [...] I think the best prank I ever pulled was, I told a guy once, "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 I took it back, almost instantly.[[/note]] As Creator/PattonOswalt put it, "Comedians who don't like Jay Leno now, and I'm one of them, we're not like, "Jay Leno sucks;" it's that we're so hurt and disappointed that one of the best comedians of our generation… willfully has shut the switch off."

* GrowingTheBeard: It's generally agreed that it took a couple of years for the show to come together, with Jay only truly becoming comfortable when Kevin Eubanks became the bandleader and they began building a rapport.

%%* CriticalBacklash: Against Leno.

* NeverLiveItDown: Double subverted. Despite what some Creator/DavidLetterman fans think, Leno ''did'' live down the "talk show wars of '93" ... and that situation for Jay vs. Letterman became a popular topic once again (in which even ''Tonight'' itself gave it some LampshadeHanging). What Leno has not yet lived down ever since it happened was taking his show back from Conan. Regardless of how much blame belongs to the higher ups and Jay, it's a massive black mark on his career that many still have not forgiven him for.

* NeverLiveItDown: Double subverted. Despite what some Creator/DavidLetterman fans think, Leno ''did'' live down the "talk show wars of '93" ... and that situation for Jay vs. Letterman became a popular topic once again (in which even ''Tonight'' itself gave it some LampshadeHanging).

* VindicatedByHistory: The show had Johnny Carson's ''Tonight Show'' in its shadow for quite a while, and the ''Jay Leno Show'' debacle in 2009-2010 earned ire from some longtime viewers who were also Conan fans. But many now appreciate the show for the monologue- one of Leno's fortes, and because it was one of the last talk shows not to overly mine politics for its jokes (though to be fair, it certainly made its fair share). Plus many of the recurring segments (Headlines, Jaywalking) were guaranteed hilarity, something which wasn't appreciated at the time because they were done so frequently.

* VindicatedByHistory: The show had Johnny Carson's ''Tonight Show'' in its shadow for quite a while, and the ''Jay Leno Show'' debacle in 2009-2010 earned ire from some longtime viewers who were also Conan fans. But many now appreciate the show for the monologue- one of Leno's fortes, and because it was one of the last talk shows not to overly mine politics for its jokes (though to be fair, it certainly made its fair share). Plus many of the recurring segments (Headlines, Jaywalking) were guaranteed hilarity, something which wasn't recognized at the time because they were done so frequently.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: During the last week of Leno's first run as host, he had Conan O'Brien on as a guest. During the interview, Leno repeatedly stressed that NBC did a great thing by keeping Conan on ''Late Night'' a couple of very poorly-rated years and letting him find his footing and eventually become successful. As it turned out, NBC wasn't interested in giving Conan a second opportunity to play around to find what works.

* RonTheDeathEater: Leno got this treatment by some Conan supporters.

** The initial reaction to Conan's departure from ''Tonight'' had some of this for Leno, namely on how plenty of people online (and even a bit on TV) thought Jay forced NBC to give him back ''Tonight'' just to spite poor Conan. However, the decision mostly rests with NBC executives, and Jay really can only be blamed for accepting the job back instead of leaving.

* InternetBackdraft: Debates on whether Leno is funny or not can get heated, especially after the conflict with Conan. There was debate about his conduct during that which led to some backdraft for him, but the backdraft towards NBC was pretty much unanimous.

* MisBlamed: The initial reaction to Conan's departure from ''Tonight'' had some of this for Leno, namely on how plenty of people online (and even a bit on TV) thought Jay forced NBC to give him back ''Tonight'' just to spite poor Conan. However, the decision mostly rests with NBC executives, and Jay really can only be blamed for accepting the job back instead of leaving.

* CriticalBacklash: Against Leno.

* CreatorsPet: He made the network a good amount of money for not much cost or risk, and they've been afraid of the possibility of him competing against their programming on another network.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: There are two broad schools of thought on how Leno ended up in the host's chair.
** Leno was a schemer and worked to manipulate the powers that be over at NBC to pick him over Letterman, Carson and the public's preferred successor. He would do the same thing with Conan O'Brien in order to return to the job he never wanted to leave.
** Leno already proved that he could pull in good ratings as Carson's regular guest host, got along well with network brass, and was happy to be a company man so he was picked over Letterman, who wasn't as interested in playing the game and could be undiplomatic.