CBS has been throwing buckets of tasty Conan O'Brien quotes overboard this week, hoping to bait a younger 60 Minutes audience and bring its median age down to 50. Yesterday, the network cleverly released a Jay-bashing soundbite from this Sunday's interview. And today's delicious excerpt slices through the very argument NBC used to boot him from his time slot.
Asked to comment on NBC statements that The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien was losing money, O'Brien said, "I honestly don't see how that's possible. It's really not possible. It isn't possible."
Regrets?
"I don't regret anything. I don't regret one decision I made in that week and a half period. I wish it had ended differently. But, I'm fine. I do believe, and this might be my Catholic upbringing or Irish magical thinking, but I think things happen for a reason. I really do."
Was He Screwed?
"The biggest thing people come up and say to me in gas stations and restaurants, I have so many people say this to me. 'Hey partner, you got screwed.' I don't, and I always tell them, 'No, I didn't. I didn't get screwed. I'm fine. It just didn't work out.'
Resolved His Issues?
"No, I have not resolved all my issues. I am mostly very happy. I love this tour it's the most thrilling thing I've done in my career. And so I'm in a really great place in a lot of ways. But I'd be lying if I said I don't have my moments of everything, you know, anger, disappointment, frustration and just confusion."
Jeff Zucker, would you like to respond?
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