Late-night comics pounce on Leno, O'Brien mess

(AP) — The competitors of Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien are pouncing on the late-night mess at NBC and using it as fodder for jokes — some of them scathing.

On ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" on Tuesday night, Kimmel performed his entire show as Leno, complete with a silver wig, a prosthetic chin and a lisp. He said he was "taking over all the shows in late-night" and said ABC stands for "Always Bump Conan."

Kimmel's performance was an usually biting dig among late-night colleagues. But he certainly wasn't alone: David Letterman and Craig Ferguson on CBS also discussed the situation.

Letterman, long a foil to Leno, did his own brief, squeaky-voiced impression of Leno on the "Late Show." About O'Brien, he simply called him "a nice fellow." He reserved his harshest criticism for NBC programming executives and Carson Daly, whom he mocked for having a show at 1:35 a.m. EST.

On "The Late Late Show," Ferguson called NBC executives liars and claimed he would never work for the network.

NBC is restoring Leno to the slot at 11:35 p.m. EST for a 30-minute version of "The Jay Leno Show." The move displaces the "Tonight" show past midnight.

O'Brien said in a statement Tuesday that he would not accept the move.

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NBC is owned by General Electric Co.; ABC is a unit of The Walt Disney Co.