We may never learn the true nature of the backroom dealings that led to Jay Leno winning NBC's 10 p.m. slot, but as VF.com notes, he's always shown a ferocious capacity for Darwinian late night survival.

In the last tectonic late-night shift—during Johnny Carson's retirement— Leno wasn't above hunkering down with a styrofoam coffee cup pressed to his ear for little crawlspace espionage:

On the night of January 6, 1992, in a feat of corporate espionage chronicled in Bill Carter’s book on the late-night wars, The Late Shift, Leno hid in a closet-like office beneath his Burbank studio to listen in on a conference call taking place among NBC executives. They were discussing who should follow Johnny Carson as host of The Tonight Show—Leno or David Letterman. While they argued, Leno took notes “on what people thought of him and his show,” Carter reported. “Best of all he knew exactly who was for him and who was against him.”

He has other tricks up his sleeve: At last summer's TCA, he arrived disguised in a bald wig, goatee, and glasses, and asked a series of pointed questions to the Ben Silverman-hosted NBC panel, including, "Is it true that you offered Leno a fifth hour on the Today show?" The stunt, as bewildering as it was, obviously had the intended effect: Reminded of how well things have been going with Kathie Lee Gifford, Silverman obligingly allowed Leno to hit the same casting couch that got her the gig. One steamy closed-door session later, the 10 o'clock slot was his.