Conan O’Brien speaks out on ’60 Minutes’

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In his first interview since he left NBC, Conan O’Brien tells ’60 Minutes’ that he would have left NBC rather than do what Jay Leno did to him.

In excerpts released by CBS today, O’Brien is quoted as saying to Steve Kroft: ‘He went and took that show back and I think in a similar situation, if roles had been reversed, I know -- I know me, I wouldn’t have done that,’ O’Brien said. ‘If I had surrendered ‘The Tonight Show’ and handed it over to somebody publicly and wished them well -- and then ... six months later. But that’s me, you know. Everyone’s got their own, you know, way of doing things.’

Asked by Kroft what he would have done, O’Brien replied: ‘Done something else, go someplace else. I mean, that’s just me.’

O’Brien eventually left NBC, which paid him a reported $33 million to do so. O’Brien told Kroft that he didn’t see the point in giving his all in a relationship that seemed to have no future.

‘I think this relationship is going be toxic and maybe we just need to go our separate ways,’ he said. ‘That’s really how it felt to me ... and I started to feel that I’m not sure these people even really want me here .... I can’t do it [anymore].’

TBS announced earlier this month that O’Brien will join the network in November to host a talk show.

The ’60 Minutes’ interview airs on Sunday at 7 p.m.

-- Maria Elena Fernandez (Follow me on Twitter @writerchica)

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