Jimmy Kimmel: Leno's "early bird special"

In case anyone was wondering why tonight's "Jimmy Kimmel Live" is a rare Tuesday rerun (Friday's show with Eminem and Mike Tyson) -- well, Kimmel was in New York for ABC's upfront presentation to advertisers and affiliates. According to this New York Times report, his monologue was so scathing that the reporter speculated he must have "great blackmail photos of the network executives."

Here are his quips about Jay Leno's upcoming 10 PM show:

Mr. Kimmel then took a verbal swing at his own network, reminding the audience that ABC had attempted to hire away Mr. Leno when his tenure ended at NBC's "Tonight Show." But, according Mr. Kimmel, NBC said it would not give up Mr. Leno, "even if we have to destroy our own network to keep him."

By devoting its entire 10 p.m. lineup, Monday through Friday, to Mr. Leno, Mr. Kimmel said NBC is "giving Jay's viewers exactly what they want. An early-bird special."

The report also states that "after rattling off a few statistics about the affluence of his viewers, he then admitted that he'd made all the numbers up. (He said so in a more obscene way.)" According to the Live Feed blog, his words were, "Everything you've heard today, everything you're going to hear this week, is bullshit."