Conan O'Brien, Jay Leno: '60 Minutes'

Conan O'Brien is a bitter, bitter man and CBS loves it.

Naturally, O'Brien is using a CBS program, 60 Minutes, as his forum to trash Jay Leno. The home network of David Letterman, Leno's competition, is perfect for O'Brien to air his anger. What better place for O'Brien to publicly slam Leno on national TV?

Yes, Letterman trounced O'Brien in the ratings when he hosted The Tonight Show; but O'Brien apparently carries no grudges about that. His target is Leno.

CBS has an interest in smearing Leno, too. Now that Leno is back as host of The Tonight Show, NBC has regained the lead in the ratings and beating CBS and ABC in all key demographics.

To date, Jay Leno has ranked #1 in adult 18-49 rating on 37 of 40 nights versus "Late Show," including two ties, since returning as host of "Tonight" on March 1. In total viewers, Jay has ranked #1 on 40 of 40 nights.

That has to be making NBC affiliates very happy and O'Brien very humiliated.

From CBS:

Conan O'Brien says he would have left NBC rather than do what Jay Leno did to him, in his first interview since being forced off the Tonight Show.

O'Brien's interview with "60 Minutes" correspondent Steve Kroft will be broadcast this Sunday, May 2, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

"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 says. "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," he tells Kroft.

Asked by Kroft what he would have done, O'Brien says, "Done something else, go someplace else. I mean, that's just me."

O'Brien eventually left NBC, deciding not to play second-fiddle to Leno. He says he didn't see the point in giving his all in a relationship that seemed to have no future. "I think this relationship is going be toxic and maybe we just need to go our separate ways," he says. "That's really how it felt to me…and I started to feel that I'm not sure these- people even really want me here….I can't do it [anymore]."

O'Brien does not play a victim well. He's acting like a spoiled brat by demonizing Leno. It's very small of him.

I don't like to see O'Brien acting this way. I was a fan and regular viewer of Late Night as well as The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. He was part of my late night TV viewing for years and years and years, so it's not like I come at this from an anti-Conan perspective.

But I must side with Leno.

I would have some sympathy for O'Brien if he hadn't forced Leno out as host of The Tonight Show.

Leno was number one. He wasn't struggling at all. He consistently beat Letterman in the ratings race.

O'Brien doesn't seem to want to point out that he got Leno fired. Yeah, Conan did that.

O'Brien needs to acknowledge that fact. He's being disingenuous when he leaves out that part of the equation. He wants to be seen as the victim without taking any responsibility for being the villain.

Blaming NBC would be a much better strategy for O'Brien than bashing Leno. Making Leno out to be the bad guy in The Tonight Show drama isn't fair.

"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."

What a crock!

O'Brien's "way of doing things" was to get NBC to fire Leno. That's not exactly being Mr. Nice Guy.

Granted, it was NBC's decision to go along with O'Brien's demands.

Obviously, that was a big mistake on NBC's part, and the network paid for it. But O'Brien set the mess in motion. He pushed Leno out of a job.

Bottom line: The fault, dear Conan, is not in Leno, but in yourself.

It's really too bad O'Brien is sniping like this, but as O'Brien said, "Everyone's got their own, you know, way of doing things."