Factbox: Key facts on talk show host Jay Leno

(Reuters) - Jay Leno will return to a late-night slot on NBC after the network's failed experiment to launch "The Jay Leno Show" in prime time at 10 p.m.

* Born in New Rochelle, New York, on April 28, 1950, Leno is married and has no children.

* Took over as fourth host of "The Tonight Show" in 1992, when Johnny Carson retired after a three-decade stint.

* Beat David Letterman for the coveted job and once hid in a closet-like office so that he could overhear NBC executives discussing the succession battle on a conference call.

* Initially trailed audiences of Letterman, who launched a rival show on CBS. But eventually Leno built a big lead thanks to broad jokes delivered in a comedy club-like atmosphere.

* Leno ended his 17-year run on "The Tonight Show" on May 29, 2009, forced aside by NBC executives who did not want to lose successor Conan O'Brien to a rival network.

* "The Jay Leno Show," a five-night-a-week variety show, premiered in prime-time on September 14, 2009. NBC hoped low production costs would more than offset low ratings but the network's affiliates complained his weak lead-in crippled the viewership of their lucrative 11 p.m. local newscasts.

* Leno leaves his estimated $30 million salary untouched and lives off money from comedy club appearances.

* "Leno on Leno: "Showbiz is not that hard. People make it difficult. The problem starts when you have to have all the money. I don't need the money. It's just my wife and me." (Rolling Stone magazine, June 2009).

* His wife Mavis is a long-time advocate of women's rights in Afghanistan.

* Leno is a gearhead. His warehouse boasts century-old steam-driven cars, classic Bugattis and Duesenbergs, and dozens of sports cars, muscle cars, hot rods and motorbikes.

(Reporting by Dean Goodman; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte and John O'Callaghan)