Jay Leno Sucks.

When Johnny Carson handed the reins of the Tonight Show over to Jay Leno in 1992, he did so with a great deal of reluctance. Johnny wanted to pass the torch to who many thought was the natural successor to the Tonight Show – David Letterman. A lot of backroom politics, hiding in closets, and corporate maneuvering kept that from happening. And the man responsible for those moves was Jay Leno.

The next time you’re sitting down with Netflix wondering what to stream, download The Late Shift for a better idea of what I’m talking about.

The kind of slimy moves Leno made to get himself The Tonight Show in ’92 are the same moves he’s making 18 years later to get right back to where he started.

Amazingly, some people actually thought Jay Leno was going to step down in favour of Conan keeping The Tonight Show to alleviate all the drama that’s taking place. Here’s why those people are wrong:

NBC wanted to push Jay Leno out of the Tonight Show, as idiotic as that was. Leno was getting good ratings as host at 11:30, mostly based on having strong lead-ins from prime time. NBC has made a lot of stupid moves, but that's beside the point. They wanted to mess with what worked and bring Conan up an hour. Conan jumped at the chance, and who wouldn't?

Much of what brings viewers into late night is having the 10-o’clock drama hour packed with strong shows like Law and Order, ER, and most recently cop drama Southland, a show with strong ratings after its debut. NBC dominated in that department for the longest time, which fed into Leno’s banal, non-edgy talk show. As pablum as it was, it was a formula that worked.

So instead of riding off into the sunset and passing the Tonight Show baton to Conan, Jay made it all about himself. When Jay’s 10:00 show was starting up, everyone was talking about it – because it got promoted far and above Conan’s move. Everywhere you looked, Leno was being advertised for his big move to 10.

Wait a minute, I thought this was supposed to be about Conan's triumphant ascension into the late night throne? It became about Jay.

For a guy who announced he was leaving the Tonight Show back in 2004 – a guy who had a full 5 years to plan his next move, he wanted to do the same show at 10? He wasn't leaving? He was going to have people driving a green car? His biggest change was getting rid of his desk? Really? He was just going to do the same show but even more neutered?

That was it?

The ratings didn’t lie – “The Jay Leno Show” was a disaster, and had local affiliates threatening NBC to preempt it to stop the bleeding.

Meanwhile, who suffered? Conan O'Brien.

By having one of the weakest lead-ins in the history of television, there was hardly a person left to watch Conan on the Tonight Show at 11:30. Leno knew it and wanted it that way. It was his plan all along - he never wanted to leave in the first place.

As you may have heard, NBC offered to put Leno back at 11:35 while pushing Conan to just after midnight with The Tonight Show, which Coco summarily rejected – as he should have. You can’t have The Tonight Show be pushed around the dial after 60 years of tradition, merely because a guy who failed at 10pm wants his old slot back. Hell, it wouldn’t even BE the tonight show, it would be the TOMORROW show.

It’s no coincidence that pretty much everyone in late night is calling Jay out on the carpet for this. Dave Letterman has ripped into Leno the past few days. It's no coincidence that Jimmy Kimmel went as far as to slap on a fake chin, a whiny voice affect and proceeded to dedicate the entire hour of his show to lampooning Jay Leno, even during interviews. It's not by chance that Leno, on the other hand plays the innocent and hardly gives it a mention, instead taking a couple of softball jabs at NBC instead of acknolwedging that he's the one benefitting from all this.

So what happened today? Leno’s getting his old timeslot back, from 11:35-12:35.

Can you see why I'm not at all surprised? Because Jay Leno sucks.