Letterman and Winfrey appear in Super Bowl commercial with Leno

Feb 08, 2010- Permalink

The biggest shock of Super Bowl XLIV wasn’t the New Orleans Saints’ come from behind win but a commercial that starred David Letterman, Oprah Winfrey…and Jay Leno. The 15-second spot opens with Letterman saying “this is the worst Super Bowl party ever.” The camera pulls back to reveal Winfrey who admonishes Dave to “be nice.” The punchline? The camera pulls back again to reveal Leno, who says that “he’s just saying that because I’m here” and ends with Dave mimicking him.

How did Letterman manage to get Leno on a commercial for his show? Let’s face it the two haven’t exactly been close since Jay bumped Dave out of winning The Tonight Show 17 years ago. When the whole brouhaha with NBC, Conan and Jay exploded last month, Letterman had fun making tough jabs at Jay’s ambitions and behind the scenes maneuvering and Leno shot back with some stinging barbs about Letterman’s affairs with interns. Part of the reason that Leno and NBC would have agreed to this is that Jay, starting on Oprah’s show, is sort of engaging in an image rehab tour that’s designed to make the audience forget the showbiz ugliness that went down.

When you get right down to it, Letterman and Leno are comedians and the thought of the two arch-rivals watching the big game together is just a damn funny idea. The New York Times has a good story on how the commercial came together.