Related: Tonight Show Cuts Latest In Wave Of NBC Layoffs & Cost Trims Imposed By Comcast 
 
 SATURDAY UPDATE: Jay Leno’s spokesman has now issued this statement: ”Jay’s foremost concern is for the wonderful people who work for The Tonight Show. He did what was necessary to ensure their well-being.” 
 
 BREAKING… EXCLUSIVE… FRIDAY 8:30 PM: NBC insiders tell me The Tonight Show went through ”downsizing” today and that 20 staffers lost their jobs. Others tell me the number is more like 25, and producers were forced to take pay cuts or lose their jobs. I’ve also learned that Jay Leno took what is being described as a “tremendous” pay cut to “save as many people’s jobs as he could”. Leno’s Tonight Show is consistently the #1 late night talk show in both households and demographics, except for some anomalies when Leno does get beaten. And that’s despite the fact that the network’s primetime ratings have been dismal for many years or that Leno himself was harshly criticized by the media for that January 2010 standoff with Conan O’Brien. Even so, The Tonight Show has been and still is a cash cow for NBC. So what happened to merit the downsizing? “I don’t think ad sales are off. I just think the people who bought this company, Comcast, wants to go through everything at NBC and get their money back,” an NBC insider tells me. ”It’s hard to go through those kinds of cuts. It’s more a network issue than a late-night issue. And I would say that Jay doesn’t get credit for digging out of a gigantic hole every single night. He’s a very valuable guy to NBC and someday everyone will understand that. He does a great job.” 
 
 Related: Gabby Douglas & Michelle Obama Give ‘Tonight Show’ A Bump 
 
 The downsizing also comes just 5 days after First Lady Michelle Obama appeared as a guest for the third time on The Tonight Show: high unemployment, job creation, and taxing the rich vs the poor all are issues in the 2012 president campaign. Leno has said publicly that he’s able to bank his entire Tonight Show salary and live on the hefty fees he makes from his hectic personal appearance schedule. Leno’s new salary is reportedly $27M-$30 million a year. He reportedly brings home another $15M-$20M a year from his other gigs. 
 
 Leno replaced Johnny Carson as host of The Tonight Show in 1992 after having been a regular substitute host since 1987. He “officially” ended hosting of The Tonight Show in 2009 when Conan O’Brien started on June 1st. Leno was going to be paid for all of 2009 by NBC even though he was only working six months of it. When his ratings dipped, O’Brien was asked to move The Tonight Show‘s time slot later to make room for Leno’s return at 11:30 PM. O’Brien refused. NBC gave Conan a $40M payoff (including salaries for his staff) to leave The Tonight Show hosting job which Leno resumed in 2010. 
 
 Related: Gabby Douglas & Michelle Obama Give ‘Tonight Show’ A Bump 
 
 Jay Leno Celebrates 20th Anniversary Hosting ‘The Tonight Show’ 
 
 Jimmy Kimmel Bests Leno & Letterman 
 
 Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here. ||||| "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno is taking a significant reduction in pay and roughly two dozen staffers are being let go as part of a major budget restructuring at the late-night talk show. 
 
 Although "The Tonight Show" remains the top-rated late-night program, from a financial standpoint it is only break-even, according to a person familiar with the economics of the show. One reason for that is that the production budget of the show was not reduced when Leno moved back to late night after his ill-fated stint in prime time during the 2009-10 television season. 
 
 Leno's current salary is between $25 million and $30 million and he volunteered to take a cut if it would save some jobs. A person close to the network thought Leno's new salary is likely around $20 million. Bruce Bobbins, one of Leno's spokesmen, declined to comment. 
 
 [Updated at 10:49 a.m., Aug. 18: In a statement later Bobbins said, "Jay's foremost concern is for the wonderful people who work for 'The Tonight Show.' He did what was necessary to ensure their well-being."] 
 
 While an NBC spokeswoman declined to comment on the situation, the job losses are said to be between 20 and 25 people and many other senior staffers also agreed to pay cuts. 
 
 The weekly budget for Leno's prime time show was approximately $2.3 million and it stayed there when he returned to late night and Conan O'Brien was sent packing. The budget now will be closer to $1.7 million, which is in the range of what it was during Leno's previous late-night stint. 
 
 Leno is not the first late-night host to agree to a salary reduction. In 2009, CBS restructured David Letterman's deal and reduced his salary and the budget of the show. 
 
 Whether NBC will look to other areas to make additional cuts is yet to be determined. Earlier this year, the network trimmed its marketing and promotions staff. 
 
 News of the cuts were first reported by Deadline Hollywood. 
 
 ALSO: 
 
 Movie review: 'Cosmopolis' 
 
 Moviegoers still wary of theaters after Aurora shootings 
 
 Robert Pattinson tries to separate professional and personal lives ||||| Jay Leno, the former king of late-night television who was pushed out as host of NBC's "The Tonight Show" last year and then struggled in his new prime-time slot, is in talks to return to 11:30 p.m. Conan O'Brien, who succeeded Leno, would either go back to following Leno or leave the network.The reshuffle could happen as soon as March, after NBC finishes airing the 2010 Winter Olympics, according to people familiar with the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity. Although Leno is on board with the plan, O'Brien has not yet signed on and that needs to be resolved before the network can make it official, sources said.The network's flip-flop is being driven in large part by complaints from NBC affiliates across the country who have lost viewers and advertising revenue because of Leno's performance in the 10 p.m. slot. The imminent move also highlights the fourth-place network's difficulty in reviving its anemic prime-time lineup at a time when a majority stake of the company is in the process of being sold from parent General Electric Co. to cable giant Comcast Corp.The leading scenario is for Leno's late-night show to shrink to half an hour and then be followed by O'Brien at 12:05 a.m. Even though Leno's workload would be cut in half, his estimated $30-million annual salary would not be, sources close to the comedian said.Restoring Leno to his former slot represents a tacit admission by NBC that its daring move to replace him with O'Brien and shake up its 10 p.m. time slot was a huge mistake. When NBC Chief Executive Jeff Zucker made the decision in September 2004, it was done as a defensive measure to keep O'Brien from defecting to a rival network. Also, though Leno was No. 1 then, NBC was betting that the younger O'Brien would be ready to take over the "Tonight Show" desk and keep the program fresh for the next generation.But as Leno's late-night exit date drew closer and he considered competing against O'Brien, NBC gave Leno his own show at 10 p.m. It was a plan that NBC hoped would allow it to have its cake and eat it too.Instead, both moves proved to be big disappointments. Leno's show has not performed well at 10 p.m. and O'Brien has not been able to fill Leno's shoes at 11:30 p.m.Since premiering in prime time in September, Leno's show has averaged 5.34 million viewers, according to Nielsen. That's a 29% drop from the same period last season when it was running dramas such as "Law & Order" and "ER."NBC has publicly stood by its decision to put Leno on in prime time. One of its key arguments has been that although Leno's numbers are lower than the dramatic fare that the network used to run in that hour, the show's production costs are much cheaper.Though NBC may be saving money on Leno, the local stations that carry the network's programming across the country are feeling the pain of Leno's weaker ratings. The affiliates need the network to deliver a big audience at 10 p.m to feed into their late local news, which is where they make as much as 33% of their revenue.Leno's declining ratings have led late local news at many NBC stations to fall by as much as 30%. The affiliates were patient with NBC in the fall when Leno's prime-time show premiered, but now many are griping to the network. NBC has acknowledged that Leno's performance has become a major issue for their stations.The network's affiliates aren't the only ones that have been vocal about Leno's lackluster performance. The creative community has been bitter about NBC turning its back on 10 p.m. dramas that gave the network beloved signature shows such as "Hill Street Blues," and "ER.""I feel they should take down their American flag and put up a white one," cracked Peter Tolan, executive producer of FX's hit drama "Rescue Me," last year about NBC's decision to put Leno in prime time. John Wells, who was an executive producer of NBC's "ER" and "The West Wing," said last fall that he was "disappointed that NBC no longer has the time periods available to support the kind of critically acclaimed series that was for so many years the hallmark of their success."NBC would have to scramble to find programming for the 10 p.m. hour that can be ready by March. The network would probably use its veteran news magazine "Dateline" as a stop-gap measure and shift some of its current hourlong dramas to Leno's slot as well.Leno's woes in prime time have been well-publicized, but O'Brien's move from 12:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. has been equally traumatic. He trails CBS' "The Late Show with David Letterman" by about 2 million viewers. The two shows are tied in the coveted adults 18-49 demographic. Leno routinely beat Letterman in both categories.On Thursday night, Leno addressed the situation on his show, joking that he didn't think the rumors were true because "it's always been my experience that NBC only cancels you when you're in first place. So we are fine. We are OK."O'Brien's camp is keeping quiet and he, unlike Leno, did not address Thursday's news on his show. In a statement, NBC said: "We remain committed to keeping Conan O'Brien on NBC." NBC is probably trying to find some wiggle room with O'Brien. His contract, which pays him about $25 million a year, has a $40-million penalty fee if NBC were to force him out as host of "The Tonight Show."One point of contention is whether O'Brien's program would continue to be called "The Tonight Show" even if it follows Leno's 11:30 p.m. program. Leno, sources said, is more concerned with regaining his old time slot than wrestling over a title.Whether Walt Disney Co.'s ABC or News Corp.'s Fox would go after O'Brien remains to be seen. It was Fox's pursuit of O'Brien six years ago that led NBC to set up the Leno succession plan in the first place.Fox doesn't have a late-night show, but a senior executive at the company downplayed the idea that it would chase O'Brien.ABC now runs the news magazine "Nightline" followed by its late-night show hosted by Jimmy Kimmel. "Nightline" has actually performed decently for the network and is significantly cheaper than O'Brien's show.Times staff writers Maria Elena Fernandez and Matea Gold contributed to this report.
– Jay Leno has long said he lives off his standup money and takes the millions he gets paid for hosting the Tonight Show and sticks it right in the bank. So the news that Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywood broke last night might not sting quite as much for him: One source tells her that Leno took a "tremendous" pay cut, and the LA Times confirms it was indeed "significant." The numbers require some guesswork, but the LAT thinks he went from somewhere between $25 million and $30 million down to about $20 million. Finke's numbers are higher. According to both accounts, Leno volunteered to take the cuts to save jobs, though at least 20 people got layoffs. Why the downsizing? Finke says it's not because of concerns about ratings or ad revenue, but because parent company Comcast is demanding cuts all around. She says the show is still a "cash cow." The LAT, meanwhile, says Leno's prime-time budget never got shaved when he moved back to later hours.