Jay Leno is dealing with his show’s cancellation like a true comedian — he’s making fun of “The Man.”
The comic took jabs at NBC in his first monologue since the cancellation of his primetime flop, The Jay Leno Show, was announced on Sunday.
“Welcome to the Jay Leno Show. As you know, we’re not just a show anymore, we are now a collector’s item,” Leno opened, cracking jokes about the end of his primetime experiment and his future at the network. “As you may have heard, our show has been canceled. Fired again! That shows you that NBC’s got nothing. Even when they fire people it’s a rerun,” he continued. “Didn’t we just get fired in May?”
During the Television Council Association’s conference over the weekend, NBC confirmed that it will axe Leno’s primetime program at the end of the month to pave the way to tentatively push it back to 11:35, moving Conan O’Brien’s show to midnight. Conan took over The Tonight Show from Leno late last year, losing millions of viewers in the switch.
In tonight’s monologue, Jay confessed that he isn’t sure where his show will end up.
“Supposedly we’re moving to 11:30, but even this is not for sure,” he told the audience. “My people are upset. Conan’s people are upset. Hey, NBC said they wanted drama at 10. Now they’ve got it — everyone’s mad.”
Leno ended the monologue with a final poke at The Peacock: “I take pride in one thing. I leave NBC prime-time the same way I found it — a complete disaster,” he laughed.