Jay Leno: Conan And I BOTH 'Got Screwed' (VIDEO)

Jay Leno gave an interview to Joy Behar before she appeared on "The Tonight Show" Tuesday (when she had an F-word message for Glenn Beck), and he told Joy that he thinks he and Conan O'Brien both "got screwed" in NBC's late-night debacle.

"Conan got screwed, I got screwed!" he said. "This is TV. The reason show business pays a lot of money is, so when you get screwed you got something left over."

Leno added that both he and Conan were "treated terribly."

He also predicted that Conan will come back strong.

"I think Conan will come back and he'll be strong and, you know, we'll all compete against one another," he said. "It should be me against Letterman, against Conan, against Kimmel, and then you see who wins."

Leno also told Joy that he doesn't understand why he's been vilified over the situation.

"It worked out OK," he said. "I don't quite get why I get beat up over it. I know people don't really understand sort of how this business works. It's all numbers. You know, the affiliates wanted us back, so we came back."

Behar's show appears weeknights at 9PM ET on HLN.