Tonight Show host Leno out of hospital

Jay Leno is back at home and will be at work on Monday.

After being laid up in hospital Thursday night and cancelling his first Tonight Show episodes since taking over from Johnny Carson in 1992, Leno returned to his Los Angeles home on Friday afternoon.

The Tonight Show host, who turns 59 on Tuesday, left his offices at NBC's studios in Burbank about noon Thursday after not feeling well. He checked himself into nearby Providence St. Joseph Medical Centre and stayed overnight.

Tonight Show spokeswoman Tracy St. Pierre shot down internet speculation that Leno had suffered a heart attack, although she couldn't provide details of what ailed him.

"No!" she told the New York Daily News. "He's doing fine … He was kidding around with the hospital staff and running his monologue jokes by the doctors and the nurses."

She also refuted speculation that Leno had food poisoning, but declined to elaborate.

Scheduled guests on Thursday's show were Ryan Reynolds, Jules Sylvester and the swing band Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.

Instead, the network aired the March 26 episode, which featured a musical performance by Prince and interviews with actors Paul Giamatti and Emma Roberts.

Leno's Friday show, in which CNN's Anderson Cooper was scheduled to appear, was also cancelled. Another rerun will take its place.

Leno will host the Tonight Show for the final time on May 29 after 17 years. But he will continue on NBC, with a Monday-through-Friday program at 10 p.m., starting in the fall.

Starting June 1, comedian Conan O'Brien will host the Tonight Show in the slot that follows the local 11:00 p.m. news.