Jay Leno

Jay Leno speaks candidly in an interview with Oprah Winfrey airing Thursday, his first since the NBC scheduling drama erupted.

When Oprah asked Leno about having contact with Conan O'Brien, he said he wanted to phone him, "But it didn't seem appropriate... I don't know. I think, let things cool down and maybe we'll talk."

During the last couple weeks of "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien," Conan took jabs at Leno.

Oprah asked, "Were any of the things he said about you hurtful?" Leno replied, "No, they were jokes and that's okay... It's what we do. It's like being a fighter and say, 'When you get punched in the head, did it hurt?' Well... yeah, but you're a fighter that's what you do."

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The shakeup between Leno and Conan began when NBC decided to cancel "The Jay Leno Show" (which only ran 4 months) and have Leno return to his 11:30 PM timeslot. Conan refused to have "The Tonight Show" moved to midnight, leading to his exit from the network.

Leno will be returning to "The Tonight Show" in March after the winter Olympics.

Conan O'Brien and NBC have reached a $45-million deal for O'Brien to leave "The Tonight Show" after only seven months as host.

In a statement NBC says O'Brien will get more than $33 million in the deal and the rest will go to his staff.

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"In the end, Conan was appreciative of the steps NBC made to take care of his staff and crew, and decided to supplement the severance they were getting out of his own pocket," O'Brien's manager tells The Wall Street Journal. "Now he just wants to get back on the air as quickly as possible.

O'Brien's final show will be this Friday with guests Tom Hanks, Will Ferrell (who was his first guest) and Neil Young. No word on where or when O'Brien will return to TV, but it's possible he could pop up on FOX or Comedy Central.

Jay Leno will retake the reins as the "Tonight Show" host beginning March 1.

Jay Leno used his monologue on Wednesday night to attack late-night rival David Letterman's personal life.

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On "The Jay Leno Show," he said, "Letterman had been hammering me every night," Leno continued, "Hey Kev, you know the best way to get Letterman to ignore you? Marry him. He will not bother you. He won't look you in the eye."

Some of the crowd cheered while others jeered. Bandleader Kevin Eubanks shook his head and replied, "Here we go!"

Leno followed, "Here we go... get the ride going."

In October, Letterman admitted to having sexual relationships with members of his staff.

On Tuesday, Letterman took a jab at Leno in a promo spoof claiming he steals bits from "Late Night" and Howard Stern.

David Letterman is definitely team Coco.

The comedian slammed Jay Leno's return to the "Tonight Show" in a promo spoof, where he knocked Leno for stealing bits from "Late Night" and Howard Stern.

Letterman also described Leno's Tuesday night commentary, in which he told people not to blame Conan O'Brien for the "Tonight Show" drama, as "Vintage Jay."

"He said we should not blame Conan for what's going on," said Letterman. "And I said to myself, 'No one is blaming Conan.'"

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Letterman jokes, "I'm begging you, ladies and gentleman, on behalf of everyone involved, please don't blame Conan. I know a lot of you people think that Conan pushed himself out of a job... he's not that kind of guy."

He continues, "In the thousands and thousands of words that have been printed about this mess, who has blamed Conan? No one... no one has blamed Conan!"

David ended his monologue by telling Leno, "You get fired, get another gig! Don't hang around waiting for somebody to drop dead."

Ouch.

Jay Leno spent a portion of Monday night's "Jay Leno Show" explaining his side of the shakeup at NBC, shifting the blame to bad decisions by NBC executives and Conan O'Brien's weak ratings.

Conan O'Brien Out, Jay Leno In

Leno explained to the audience that NBC came to him in 2004 and told him they would be replacing him with "Late Night" host Conan O'Brien in 2009. "I'm sitting in my office and an NBC executive comes to me and says, 'Listen, Conan O'Brien has gotten offers from other networks and we don't want him to go, so we're offering him 'The Tonight Show.'"

Leno continued, stating that although NBC didn't renew his "Tonight Show" contract, they wanted him to remain on the network. "Before I could go anywhere else, it would be at least a year or 18 months before I could go and do a show somewhere else. They said, 'We want to keep you here.' I said, okay."

In an effort to keep Jay on the network, executives offered him a prime-time show.

Leno next explained that while his show didn't make it past four months, Conan's "Tonight Show" was suffering as well. "Four months go by, we [The Jay Leno Show] don't make it. Meanwhile Conan's show during the summer when we were not on was not doing well. The great hope was that we would help him. Well, we didn't help him any."

Leno then explained how NBC executives came and offered him the 11:35 PM timeslot, shifting Conan's "Tonight Show" back to 12:05 AM. "I said, 'What's your idea?' They said, 'Look, how about you do a half-hour show at 11:30?'" Leno replied, "Do you think Conan will go for that?"

Conan rejected the idea of doing "The Tonight Show" half an hour later -- which would have made it "The Tomorrow Show."

Leno finally said the NBC executives came to him and said, "If he [Conan] decides to walk and doesn't want to do it, do you [Jay Leno] want the show back?" Leno said, "Yeah, I'll take the show back."

After a week of feuding late-night jokes and jabs at NBC, Conan O'Brien has reportedly agreed to leave the "Tonight Show" and give Jay Leno his time slot.

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According to the L.A. Times, reps for both comedians have negotiated a deal about the late-night switch up, resolving financial issues for Conan (who has two and a half years left on his contract) and moving Jay Leno from primetime back to late night.

A source tells the newspaper that NBC will write Conan a big check as a part of the deal -- the amount is expected to be between $25 million and $35 million.

NBC initially wanted to bump Conan's "Tonight Show" from the 11:35 PM time slot to 12:05 AM, but O'Brien refused and said the move would violate the terms of his contract.

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Conan, the fifth host ever for the "Tonight Show," held his title for seven months. His last show will likely be Friday, January 22.

Leno is expected to end his primetime run on February 11, the day before coverage of the Winter Olympics begins.