Watch Jay Leno Crash CNN’s Live Coverage of L.A. Wildfires

It’s one thing for Anderson Cooper to guest on a late-night show, but it’s a rarer sight to see a late-night host appear on Cooper’s news program as he covers one of the worst natural disasters in American history.

CNN viewers got just that when Jay Leno crashed Anderson Cooper 360° Monday night.

Cooper was broadcasting from a staging area in Pacific Palisades when the former Tonight Show host spotted him and came over to say hello. (Leno has been serving hot meals to firefighters battling the ongoing blazes, shuttling to diffferent locations in his 1941 American LaFrance fire truck.)

“They’re all getting boxed lunches. We figured, ‘Let’s get some hot food,’” Leno told Cooper, offering the CNN crew meals as well.

When pressed to reflect on the situation as a longtime resident of Los Angeles, Leno tried to emphasize the level of destruction that the fires have wrought. “It’s unbelievable,” he said. “It’s ten thousand buildings. If you drove all day, you couldn’t see 10,000 buildings. You get on that hill and you look for miles, and there’s nothing. It looks like Hiroshima or just some horrible thing.”

“It’s an entire city wiped out. Pacific Palisades, it doesn’t exist, and probably won’t exist for the next five, six years,” Leno continued. “I don’t know how you rebuild from this. It’s $160 billion dollars. There’s no insurance company in the world that has that much money. The problems will be insurmountable.”

“But we’ll get through it,” Leno added. “We always do.”

Shifting his focus toward the silver lining, the comedian noted the newfound camaraderie and goodwill that has sprung up as a result of the devastation. “The sense of community—neighbors meeting neighbors they never met before, and people all pitching in,” he described. “I try to look at the bright side of things, you know?”

Perhaps inspired by the longtime late-night host’s presence, Cooper couldn’t let Leno go without a quick zinger: “Nice to see someone else with some white hair,” he quipped as he and Leno parted.

2 Comments

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  1. Vicky Wolf says:

    I love Jay Leno! God bless him for helping the Firemen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  2. Martha Loy says:

    Jay and Anderson
    Two of the most honorable men on this planet. They are giving what’s better than money, – they’re giving their time
    They are providing meals to everyone in need- they’re relaying important information to those that are involved Jay and Anderson- you’re my heros.