Jay Leno's Oprah Moment

The battle of the late-night hosts is moving to daytime.

Jay Leno is set to appear on'The Oprah Winfrey Show' next Thursday in a one-on-one interview, according to a report in Entertainment Weekly.

The interview comes after weeks of recriminations and negotiations involving Leno's 10 p.m. 'The Jay Leno Show' and Conan O'Brien's 'The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien' and NBC execs, who determined that both shows were not performing as they had hoped. The end result is that Leno is returning to 'The Tonight Show,' which he hosted from 1992 to 2009, and O'Brien, who has been the host of 'The Tonight Show' for almost eight months, will exit the network.The battle of the late-night hosts is moving to daytime.

Jay Leno is set to appear on'The Oprah Winfrey Show' next Thursday in a one-on-one interview, according to a report in Entertainment Weekly.

The interview comes after weeks of recriminations and negotiations involving Leno's 10 p.m. 'The Jay Leno Show' and Conan O'Brien's 'The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien' and NBC execs, who determined that both shows were not performing as they had hoped. The end result is that Leno is returning to 'The Tonight Show,' which he hosted from 1992 to 2009, and O'Brien, who has been the host of 'The Tonight Show' for almost eight months, will exit the network.

O'Brien's final NBC broadcast is tonight, and Leno is expected to return to 'The Tonight Show' after the Winter Olympics, on March 1. Leno is also set to host the White House Correspondents Dinner in Washington on May 1.

The 'Jay Leno Show' ends Feb. 11.

On Thursday's 'Oprah' appearance, Leno will get to explain his side of the story and try to rebuild his damaged image. We wonder if he'll give viewers a glimpse of who the real Jay Leno is. Viewers have had closer relationships with prior 'Tonight Show' hosts then with Leno: We knew Johnny Carson as the snarky Midwestern kid in the big city and, before him, host Jack Parr was high-strung and honest with his feelings.

But Leno's still a bit of a mystery to us. He's warm and engaging, but remote in an odd way. We know he comes from the Northeast and is a veteran of the comedy club circuit. He has an extensive car collection and we know he's married to Mavis, but not much beyond that.

In the late-night wars, he's come off -- thanks largely to rivals David Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel -- as a driven dark force who will remove anyone who gets in his way. Now he gets his chance to counter that charge and perhaps reveal a bit about who he is and what motivates him. Leno and Winfrey are friends so he can expect few, if any, pressing questions -- just air time to polish his image. We hope he goes further than that, and lets us inside.

Who are you Jay Leno, and why do you want us to watch you again at 11:35 each night?