Saturday, December 21, 2024

Jay Leno Calls NBC Execs “Snakes” in Monologue: War Over Retirement Is Getting Hotter

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Don’t believe these new stories about Jay Leno v. NBC being about criticism of his network jokes. Last night Leno called NBC executives “Snakes” in his monologue (see video). And it wasn’t because NBC chief Robert Greenblatt recently emailed Leno about jokes criticizing the network’s lousy ratings. This is ALL about NBC putting out the word recently that it wants to retire Leno at the end of the 2014 season and replace him with the younger Jimmy Fallon. Leno is an ace game player and knows exactly what he’s doing. When the Fallon story became absolutely HUGE ten days ago, he did not respond right away on his show.

Instead, he started taking pot shots at the network. The New York Times reported that Greenblatt sent Leno an email asking him to knock it off. Of course, that story was leaked.

And now this: “You know the legend of St. Patrick, right? St Patrick drove all the snakes out of Ireland. Then they came into the United States and became NBC executives.” Leno vs. NBC is going to go one for a year and change now. Get ready.

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.

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