Jay Leno bids farewell to "Tonight Show"
Fri May 29, 2009 10:40pm EDT



LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Jay Leno bid farewell to "The Tonight Show" on Friday, ending his 17-year run as host with a finale that stayed true to the style that made him the top-rated performer on U.S. late-night television.

The main difference was a long ovation that Leno struggled to quiet as he took the stage for an opening monologue that poked fun, as usual, at politicians, celebrities and current events.

He thanked the likes of pop star Michael Jackson and former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, whose affair with Bill Clinton led to the former U.S. president's impeachment, for giving him material over the years. He also took a final jab at his network, NBC, which is mired at the bottom of the ratings among the four major U.S. broadcasters.

Leno takes his act to 10 p.m. on NBC this autumn, where he will mount a program expected to be similar to the "Tonight Show" but attract a wider audience than the roughly 5 million viewers, on average, who tune in nightly to the broadcast.

"I'm going to be going to a secluded spot where no one can find me -- NBC prime time," Leno said. "It's a gamble. I'm betting NBC will still be around in three months, but that's not a given."

He joked that he had finally cleaned out his office and "found O.J.'s knife. I had it the whole time," referring to former football star O.J. Simpson, who was acquitted on charges he murdered his wife in the mid-1990s.

Leno even introduced a new segment, "White Trash Theater," which showed a video clip of a woman throwing a trash can at a man to get him off her porch.

CONSUMMATE COMEDIAN

Throughout the opening, Leno betrayed no special sentiment -- no tears or even a choked-up voice. Indeed, he proved the consummate comedian by putting on a show that made people laugh. Guests included Conan O'Brien, who will take over as host of the "Tonight Show" on Monday, and singer James Taylor.

Leno, 59, took the reins of the venerable program in May 1992 from late-night television legend Johnny Carson.

After initially struggling in the ratings against late-night counterpart David Letterman, who had been his rival for the "Tonight Show" job, Leno grabbed the lead in viewership about 13 years ago and become a mainstay of American TV.

He has taken jabs at four presidents, from George H.W. Bush to Barack Obama, who in March became the first sitting U.S. chief executive to appear on a late-night talk show. He made audiences laugh through an era that included natural disasters, wars and the September 11 attacks.

Notable moments included Arnold Schwarzenegger's announcement of his candidacy for California governor in 2003 and British actor Hugh Grant's first public appearance after being arrested with a Los Angeles prostitute in 1995.

Leno's comic segments such as "Jaywalking," in which he joked with everyday people on the street, became popular staples.
Jay's Top 10 Moments:

10. March 13, 2000 -- New York Giants defensive back Jason Sehorn proposes marriage to Law & Order star Angie Harmon while Jay beams his approval. She accepts and they're later married in Dallas.

9. May 16-20, 1994 -- Leno returns the show to its New York roots, originating a week's worth of shows from NBC's famed "30 Rock" studios. A surprise guest is former Tonight host Jack Paar, who lets it be known that he doesn't like upcoming guest Madonna.

8. March 4-10, 2005 -- Prohibited from telling Michael Jackson jokes because he's a witness in his child molestation trial, Leno calls on other comics to stand in for him. They include Dennis Miller, Roseanne Barr and Brad Garrett.

7. Nov. 12, 2003 -- Striving to loosen up his dour image, Democratic presidential candidate and future nominee John Kerry roars onto the Tonight set as a mystery guest on a motorcycle. It doesn't help all that much, but nice try.



6. May 9, 1994 -- Comedian Bobcat Goldthwait impulsively decides to set fire to the Tonight couch while promoting his new film Shakes the Clown. This doesn't go over too well with Leno or NBC, leading to his ban from the show. But Goldthwait later plays off the incident while playing himself on HBO's The Larry Sanders Show.

5. March 2, 1994 -- The "Dancing Itos" debut during the ongoing O.J Simpson trial. The mockups of Judge Lance Ito become a pop culture touchstone, appearing 10 more times on Tonight, sometimes in tandem with an actress playing prosecutor Marcia Clark.

4. May 20, 1993 -- Tonight originates live from Boston's Bull & Finch Pub, where the cast of Cheers is celebrating that night's series finale on NBC. Several of the stars are notably plastered if not blind drunk. Leno barely survives it all.

3. May 12, 2003 -- As part of a ratings sweeps stunt, Today co-host Katie Couric and Leno trade jobs for a day. It marks the only time he's stepped aside for a substitute host. Couric, playfully showing off her legs and taking a crack at a monologue, interviews guest Mike Myers among others.



2. Aug. 6, 2003 -- Arnold Schwarzenegger chooses Leno's Tonight as the forum to announce his candidacy for the California governorship. A throng of media cover the event in an adjacent holding pen before Schwarzenegger walks to nearby Johnny Carson Park on NBC's Burbank lot to hold a press conference.



1. July 10, 1995 -- Actor Hugh Grant makes his first public appearance on Tonight after his much-publicized arrest on Sunset Boulevard in the company of prostitute Divine Brown. For openers, Leno famously asks, "What the hell were you thinking?" The show draws a huge audience and marks the beginning of Leno's longtime dominance over Letterman's Late Show. Until then, Letterman had been riding high in the ratings while NBC brass worried whether they'd made the right choice in bypassing him in favor of Leno.