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NBC booted Leno as host of "The Tonight Show" at the end of last season and gave the position to O'Brien to keep O'Brien from moving to another network. NBC then gave Leno a nightly, hour-long, 10 p.m. series. When the prime time "Jay Leno Show" failed to be a strong lead-in for local news broadcasts, however, NBC announced it would push Leno's show back to 11:35 p.m., shorten it to 30 minutes and air "Tonight" at 12:05 a.m.

However, O'Brien said he would not remain on "Tonight" if it was bumped to 12:05 a.m.

NBC said last Thursday O'Brien would leave the network but would not be free to start a show on a competing network until September. There are reports NBC and O'Brien reached a $45 million exit deal.

The network said Leno would return to "Tonight" March 1 in its regular 11:35 p.m. time slot.

"They were jokes. And that's okay", Usmagazine.com quoted Leno as saying at the taping of Thursday's "The Oprah Winfrey Show" about O'Brien's jabs at him.

"It's what we do, you know? You can't -- it's like being a fighter and say when you got punched in the head, did it hurt? Well, yeah. But you're a fighter. That's what you do", Leno added.

He went on to say he hasn't spoken to O'Brien since the whole shakeup at NBC occurred.

"I haven't talked to him through all this", Usmagazine.com reported Leno said. "No, I haven't. ... It didn't seem appropriate ... I don't know. I think it -- let things cool down and maybe we'll talk, you know."

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