James Douglas Muir Leno is an American television host, comedian, and writer. After doing stand-up comedy for years, Leno was chosen in 1992 to replace Johnny Carson as the host of NBC's The Tonight Show; Leno hosted The Tonight Show until September 2009 when Conan O'Brien took over as host and Leno started a primetime talk show, The Jay Leno Show, which aired weeknights at 10:00 p.m. From Wikipedia