Kimmel still scoring points off of Leno fiasco

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I made a bit of a promise to myself last week that I was done with the whole Leno/Conan imbroglio. I had analyzed, barked, got snarky, waxed philosophic… frankly I was tired. It was what it was; while I can see the merit in Leno’s argument that NBC’s epically stupid management was really the villain in this whole mess, I still think, in the end, the lesser comedian wound up on top.

(And, Jay… don’t give me that “I’m just an employee here…” business. You told Oprah that you agreed to retake “The Tonight Show” out of a deep concern was that your 170 employees be able to continue working and supporting their families. Please. As Oprah pointed out repeatedly, you could have negotiated a severance for your staff the way another late night comedian just did. Plus: if you have sway over 170 staffers, you’re not “just an employee.” You’re a big shot. Start acting like one.)

Yes, it does all come down to ratings and money, as Leno told Oprah yesterday — and in that, we can’t be totally surprised about how things turned out.

But what is surprising is how the whole episode turned ultimate late-night after-thought Jimmy Kimmel into a TV player. (Scratch that. Carson Daley is the ultimate late-night after-thought. Kimmel’s the penultimate after-thought. Management regrets the error.)

After repeatedly mocking Leno on his own “Jimmy Kimmel Live” — and then embarrassing Leno live, to his face, on Leno’s show, Kimmel’s still scoring points off the weakened late night comedian:

“You know, at one point, he used to be a comedian.”

You know your reputation is in tatters when Jimmy Kimmel feels free to kick you repeatedly. I can understand Letterman baring teeth at Leno, but Kimmel? He’s the Hydrox to NBC’s Oreos — tasty in a pinch, but hardly the gold standard of sandwich cookie snacks. But, like any well-schooled comedian, he saw blood in the water and went for the jugular.

Watching that clip above, I have to think: Man, it’s going to be a long road back for Leno. What that clip tells me — with the audience cheering Kimmel’s dismissive attitude toward Leno — is that there’s an entire generation of TV viewers who will no longer have anything to do with Jay Leno.

And in the long-run, NBC will pay the price for that.