Is the Leno-Letterman rivalry cooling off?
The two late-night hosts, who will be competing for the 11:35 PM timeslot’s ratings once again when Jay Leno returns to “The Tonight Show” on March 1, appeared together for the first time in years in a Super Bowl ad on Sunday. The ad, a spot for David’s “Late Show,” revisited a 2007 ad featuring Oprah Winfrey and David watching the big game. This time, however, Jay joined the pair.
The spot was taped earlier this week in the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York, CBS confirmed to Access Hollywood. “Late Show” executive producer Rob Burnett told the New York Times that the shoot had been Dave’s idea.
“This wasn’t done to help Dave or to help Jay,” he told the newspaper. “Though I think it does help both of them. It was just done because Dave thought it would be funny and would entertain people. Nothing went beyond that.”
He added that the filming had been “very friendly.” “It was very friendly, very professional, totally cordial,” Burnett said. “You could tell these were two guys who have known each other for a long time.”
CBS confirmed to Access that both Jay and Oprah snuck into the studio during a live taping of “Late Night” in disguise — to keep the taping a secret — and taped the spot after the audience had been cleared out. Filming took about a half-hour.
During the recent late-night shake-ups at NBC, David used the opportunity to revisit his own “Tonight Show” controversy – when Jay earned the show’s hosting gig over himself back in 1992.
And Jay responded on “The Jay Leno Show,” joking in one episode, “You know the best way to get Letterman to ignore you? Marry him.”
The pair’s falling out was dramatized in the 1996 film “The Late Shift.”
Popularity: 1% [?]
