Jay Leno said that if he were embroiled in the sex scandal currently facing his former late night rival David Letterman, it would "kill" him. When asked if he thinks the attention Letterman is getting will help or hurt the Late Show host, Leno told Broadcasting & Cable, "I don't know. He's not being a hypocrite; Dave has never set himself up as a model citizen. If it were me, it would kill me. I'm the guy who's been married 29 years. But Dave has never pretended to be Mr. Moral America, he's never set himself up that way. He's not a hypocrite."

He also acknowledged that his new prime-time talk show is receiving negative press and disappointing ratings, but told the publication things are still looking "OK." Leno explained, "You don't take it personally because there's really no fun in an upbeat story. The fun is, they did this and let's watch it fall. I enjoy being the underdog . . . Right now we've reached a level and we're not going below that. The numbers seem to tell us people who are watching the show are staying the whole hour; that's a good sign."

When asked if he would have preferred to have stayed at 11:35, Leno frankly said, "Yeah, sure. I would have preferred that. I think it's too soon to say whether I regret anything or not. My thing is, I did The Tonight Show for 17 years, that's what I did. It's like the America's Cup; you won it, they can't take it away from you. So now you try this and you see what happens. Do I enjoy the battle? Yes, I get a certain amount of satisfaction from pounding my head against the wall."

Leno admitted that it's frustrating to be getting approximately the same ratings as he did at 11:35, but getting beaten up for it in the press. He confessed, "I'm not having a bad time at 10 o'clock now. I look at this as a job, and now I'm faced with a challenge, and it's a challenge I find difficult but interesting."