In an interview on 60 Minutes airing this Sunday, late-night comic Conan O’Brien tells 60 Minutes if he was in Jay Leno’s position –ousted from primetime and looking at a return to late-night — he would have “Done something else, go someplace else. I mean, that’s just me.”
O’Brien left NBC — with a $33 million settlement — after a bitter divorce from the network, which decided to reinstall Leno in its marquee late-night show after his primetime program, The Jay Leno Show, bombed. In the interview with Steve Kroft, Conan – whose new TBS late night series will debut in November – said had the roles been reversed, he would’ve handled things differently.
“He went and took that show back and I think in a similar situation, if roles had been reversed, I know … I know me, I wouldn’t have done that,” O’Brien said. “If I had surrendered ‘The Tonight Show’ and handed it over to somebody publicly and wished them well and then … six months later, but that’s me, you know. Everyone’s got their own, you know, way of doing things.”