Jay Leno Is Open to Reunion With David Letterman But Admits it ‘Might Be Awkward’

Jay Leno has said he would be open to the idea of a reunion with fellow late-night legend David Letterman but revealed it could be “awkward.”

Appearing on the latest episode of In Depth with Graham Bensinger, Leno was asked about the potential of reuniting with Letterman for a future project. “I would like to do that,” Leno said. “I have no problem with it. I think Dave might be awkward.”

As for what it would take to make it happen, the former Tonight Show host said, “I have no idea! It’s just… Dave’s a quirky guy. I don’t mean that in a bad way. [We’re] opposite sides of a coin.”

Leno then recalled a story about riding motorcycles with fellow comedian Wil Shriner when they stopped by Letterman’s Malibu home. “‘We’ll just surprise him at his house,'” Leno remembered saying. “It was the most awkward day. Dave’s like, ‘Huh? Oh, uh, yeah. Uh, come on in.’ And we’re like, ‘Oh, this is a mistake.’ It was just so awkward.”

“‘So, uh, you want a glass of orange juice?’ ‘No, I’m okay Yeah. We gotta get going.’ It was just so awkward because you really, you have nothing else in common other than comedy really. Dave’s a sports guy. I’m not a sports guy.”

Despite the awkwardness, Leno reiterated, “Believe me, if Dave wanted to do something, I would do it. But I’m not gonna… I tend to get my hand bitten when I instigate those kind of things.”

When asked what he meant by getting his hand bitten, Leno shared a story about when Letterman had a heart attack. He claimed someone on The Tonight Show at the time told him not to mention anything about the heart attack on the air. Leno said he wanted to send his well wishes but was told, “‘Dave doesn’t want you to.'”

“Well, alright, okay, I don’t say anything,” Leno remembered. “Two or three weeks later I read New York Post: ‘The only person who didn’t give Dave good wishes was Leno.’ I walked into that. I just got set up.”

The media has often pitted the late-night icons against each other ever since Leno was chosen over Letterman to replace Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show back in 1992.

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Earlier in the interview with Bensinger, Leno touched on the claims that he “stole” The Tonight Show from Letterman. “First of all, Letterman never had the show,” the comedian stated. “Letterman was a huge success at 12:30 and NBC realized if they move him down to 11:30 they lose the 12:30 spot.”

He continued, “I was guest hosting [The Tonight Show] for five years before I got the show. People think I got the show and took it away from Dave. Dave never had the show. Johnny preferred Dave, but NBC wanted to keep Dave where he was. I was matching Carson’s numbers, so that was a success. So you had two real successes right here at the same time; they’re not going to screw [with that].”

You can watch Leno’s full interview in the video above and let us know your thoughts below.