Rosie Says "Shame on Jay Leno!"

While promoting her upcoming HBO documentary, Rosie O’Donnell had some harsh words for Jay Leno with respect to NBC’s current late-night fiasco.

“I am a huge fan of Conan O’Brien and that’s a franchise that has been 60 years with NBC,” she said. “And if you’re privileged enough to ask to drive the bus, you should say thank you and drive it to the best of your ability. And when it’s time for them to hire a new driver, you should say ‘Thank you for allowing me to drive this for as long as I did’ and pass the keys to the new guy with red hair and try not to flatten his tires before he even gets going.”

Ouch!

But after the session, in a scrum with several journalists (including me), Rosie made it abundantly clear that she thinks NBC has treated Conan poorly, and that Leno himself has also acted atrociously in this whole mess.

“I think [Conan] is a fantastic talent and 17 years he gave to that network and they really did a disservice to him,” she said. “I think shame on [NBC President] Jeff Zucker and really, shame on Jay Leno. I think he’s forgotten his roots and what stand-up comedy is about, and graciousness has never been his No. 1 quality. I think it would serve him well to think about what might happen if he were able to let go and grab on to whatever the next rung is.”

So what does Rosie think Jay should do?

“I think he should walk away,” she said. “Five years ago he was told that he was no longer going to be the host. Joe Namath at one point was told, ‘You’re not gonna be the quarterback.’”