Leno Jokes About Staff Layoffs in Opening Monologue. [video]
Over the weekend I posted about NBC’s The Tonight Show laying off approximately 20 staff members. Also about show host Jay Leno taking reportedly between a $5 to $10 million dollar pay cut to help minimize the damage and save a few jobs.
If NBC and Comcast thought Leno was going to let them get away with that, they were sadly mistaken. Leno did what he does best, made jokes about the situation. His Monday Monologue was full of punches and punchlines directed at the upper brass,
“Welcome to The Tonight Show, or as Comcast calls us, The Expendables! As you may have heard, our parent company has downsized The Tonight Show,”
“And we’ve consistently been No. 1 in the ratings. And if you know anything about our network, that kind of thing is frowned upon.”
The Tonight Show still dominates the late not game, but younger viewers are watching new shows with younger hosts like The Daily Show, and Jimmy Kimmel. It was rumored that cuts were made to decrease the show’s weekly production costs to regain the profitability it had before Leno moved to Primetime band then back to Late night.
If you are like some people, around this office in particular, you might have not known that Comcast merged with NBC Universal. Comcast acquired 51 percent of NBC by coughing up $13.8 billion dollars. In doing so Comcast was forced to, as part of the deal, give up it’s managing control of Hulu.
Leno joked later during his Monday opening,
“I KNEW something was going on. Friday morning I woke up and there was a peacock head in my bed.”
You can watch the complete monologue below.
