Leno Gets in Touch With (His) Show in New York : Television: After two years of doing ‘Johnny’s show,’ comedian says week in East offered valuable lessons.

Jay Leno told NBC station owners Monday that his trip to New York last week had been a valuable learning experience that will bring about significant changes in “The Tonight Show.”

“For the last two years, I’ve been doing another show. I’ve been doing Johnny’s show,” Leno told the assembled executives at their annual meeting at the Century Plaza in Los Angeles.

When Leno took over “The Tonight Show” from Johnny Carson, he used the same basic set in Burbank, with new paint. But for his one-week stint in New York, a temporary set was constructed in the “Saturday Night Live” studios that crowded a much smaller audience into a tighter space than the show uses in Burbank. That meant Leno was right on top of the crowd--similar to the club atmosphere he was accustomed to, doing stand-up comedy--and right next to his bandleader, Branford Marsalis.

“The audience was half the size, but there was more energy,” Leno said. He also identified a “sparkle” between he and Marsalis, who is normally much farther away.

“There was something missing from the show, but I never knew what it was,” Leno said. “We’re going to take these lessons we learned in New York and bring them here.”

NBC Productions is expected to begin overhauling the Burbank stage shortly to move the audience and Marsalis closer to Leno. And Dennis Roof, who designed the temporary New York set, will probably do a make-over in Burbank, an NBC spokeswoman said.

Leno vowed to continue taking “The Tonight Show” on the road to put it back on top in the ratings. The next stop is expected to be Chicago for the November ratings sweeps.

“If I have to go to every affiliate (market), I will do it,” he proclaimed. “Last week was an indication (that) if we do a good show, we can get ratings.”

“The Tonight Show” has been beaten consistently by CBS’ “Late Show With David Letterman,” but it made considerable gains with the New York telecasts--including winning on Friday in the overnight averages for 31 big cities.