While you wondered if NBC was quitting Jay Leno, Jonathan Ross announced he was quitting the BBC

Oh, you Internet. Silly, silly Internet. How silly? Silly enough that The Wrap can say a "random website" announced NBC would cancel Jay Leno's primetime show based upon speculation — NBC has ordered more new TV pilots than it has in about seven years, plus NBC owned-and-operated affiliates ain't happy about their late-night news ratings following Leno, plus hey, look, the Winter Olympics start soon and you won't see Leno for a month anyhow, so why not just make it all go away? — and then have the blogger who speculated this speculate that this morning on L.A.-area AM radio station KNX. AM radio. It's the future! But NBC lives in the future, and network TV execs have friends who are stuck in their cars listening to AM radio, so they put out a real-deal statement saying Leno was not cancelled, but hey, they know they got some fixin' to do over there at Burbank.

Here is that NBC statement on Leno, for you kids who like reading between lines:

“Jay Leno is one of the most compelling entertainers in the world today. As we have said all along, Jay’s show has performed exactly as we anticipated on the network. It has, however, presented some issues for our affiliates. Both Jay and the show are committed to working closely with them to find ways to improve the performance.”

Now settle down.

Because you need to know that a popular late-night TV guy really did announce today that he was calling it quits, as in Jonathan Ross and his Friday-night BBC chat show! Here he is making a statement about his statement — six months left on the BBC (and BBC America), and then, who knows? Care for some tea?

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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