Secret to Leno’s success? Work, work, work

The “hardest working man in show business,” as his peers call him, has no plans to take the summer off once he steps away from “The Tonight Show” on May 29. “I kinda work every night,” Jay Leno said on the phone from his NBC office in Burbank, Calif. “This is my job.”

Leno wraps “Tonight” on a Friday and then jets off to Atlantic City to perform the very next night. He has another show Sunday and then heads off to do a casino show north of Toronto the following Tuesday. “I’ve always considered myself a stand-up comedian who was lucky enough to get a TV show,” he said, believing that “TV is one of those deals that could go at any minute — even though it hasn’t.”

The 59-year-old comedian leaves “Tonight” as the second longest-serving host of the NBC franchise, behind only Johnny Carson’s incredible 30-year run. His 17-year, 3800-episode stint is three to four times the tenure of “Tonight” pioneers Steve Allen and Jack Paar. He’s proud of leaving the show the way he found it — solidly No. 1 in the late-night ratings. It’s a position he wrestled back from David Letterman 15 years ago and never surrendered, winning every sweeps period since 1994.

“The ‘Tonight Show’ was sort of like the America’s Cup,” he said. “You don’t want to be the guy who screws it up.” He’s relieved to be handing it off “to the new guy,” Conan O’Brien, who begins his “Tonight” tenure June 1.

Leno knew when he signed his last contract in 2004 that he’d be leaving “Tonight” in 2009. That was the deal he made with NBC. The plan was to keep O’Brien, 46, from leaving the network, and to provide a smooth succession.

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10 p.m. experiment ‘is pretty much gravy’
After years of speculation as to Leno’s future — would he jump to ABC? Fox? — NBC prevailed upon him to front one of the most audacious experiments on the history of television: his own, five-night-a-week, prime time comedy series.

“We’ll give it a chance and see what happens,” Leno said, smartly playing down expectations. “The fun thing is we’ve had a good run on ‘The Tonight Show,’ we’ve had a good time, so we’re going to do our best to make sure the 10 o’clock thing works. But this is pretty much gravy at this point. We’ll keep it loose and just keep throwing jokes out there.”

Slideshow Jay Leno's competition From David Letterman to Craig Ferguson, there's a whole universe of late-night hosts out there.

Leno knows better than anyone that the jokes are what his audience likes best. The monologue that used to run four-and-a-half minutes with Carson grew to 11 to 14 minutes with Leno, who crams in up to 35 or 40 jokes a night. As he told TV critics on a recent NBC conference call, “we just try to keep the jokes coming fast and furious because that’s what people like.”

Leno said he “never assumes for a minute people want to look at me,” adding, “I’m a great believer in low self-esteem; the only people I find that have high self-esteem are criminals and actors.”

Low self-esteem is part of what drives Leno. “You always assume you’re the dumbest person in the room and you’ll work harder,” he said.

For all his laid-back, regular-working-guy charm, Leno is probably the most competitive player in a very competitive business. He loves to win, hates to lose and will work harder than anyone to stay on top.

He hated missing those two “Tonight Show” episodes late last month due to a high fever, which led to a short hospital stay. They were his first sick days in 17 years on the job. “I let them talk me into this stupid, idiot idea of going to the hospital,” he said. “That was a huge mistake.”

He was quick to make light of it the next time he was back to work. “I had a horrible dream that I couldn’t breathe,” he said of his hospital stay. “Then I woke up and realized Conan was holding a pillow over my face!”

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