Jay Leno & Conan O’Brien Each Take Shots at NBC

Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien, who’ve both been unexpectedly moved from their time slots by NBC, took turns bashing the network on their shows last night.

Jay Leno & Conan O'Brien Each Take Shots at NBC

Leno, on at 10, went first. “But you know, we’re not just a show anymore, we are now a collector’s item,” he jokes.

“As you may already know, our show has been canceled, fired again. See that shows you NBC’s got nothing, even when they fire you it’s a rerun. Didn’t we just get fired in May?”

Conan got his chance on ‘The Tonight Show.’ “You keep that up,” he says after some audience claps, “and this show won’t start until 12:05,” alluding to his possible new time.

O’Brien took over ‘Tonight’ from Leno in 2009, and NBC moved Jay to a daily show that starts at 10.

But low ratings for ‘The Jay Leno’ show prompted anger from many affiliates whose nightly news casts were suffering, causing the network to announce they were putting Jay back on at 11:35, shifting Conan and Jimmy Fallon to 12:05 and 1:05 respectively.

David Letterman, who stands to lose some of his new-found audience when Jay Leno returns to the 11:35 p.m. time slot, had this to say: