Jay Leno may have left The Tonight Show, but he still calls NBC home.

Starting Monday (10 p.m.), the 59-year-old funnyman can be seen five nights a week hosting The Jay Leno Show, a new comedy variety show Leno says will boast many of Tonight‘s signature bits.

“We’re keeping elements of The Tonight Show people seemed to like and that seemed to work well,” Leno said this afternoon on a conference call with TV writers.

Those popular elements include “Headlines” and “Jaywalking.” But look for a jazzy theme song, a different set (no desk!) and A-list stars driving race cars in front of a green screen!

“This race car track could be interesting, seeing celebrities crash and burn” Leno said. ” Who doesn’t want to see a celebrity hit the wall and burst into flames?”

In his 45-minute chat, The Chin touched on everything from his new diet to why he loves Lost to if he thinks he Conan O’Brian’s Tonight Show’s ratings will improve.

On if he’s nervous about the new gig:“I’m still pretty laid back. NBC is in fourth place. I can’t do any worse. This is not as nerve-wracking as taking over from Johnny (Carson). Then (I) was an unknown entity. At this point, people kind of know what you do. They either like it or they don’t. All you can do is give it your best shot.”

On all the show’s hype: “I try to keep my head down. I’m very flattered the network has all this faith in (me). It seemed a little much. OK, guys, it’s just comedy. You don’t want to try to oversell something too much. You want to promise a little and hopefully deliver a lot more. I didn’t even want to call it The Jay Leno Show. I wanted to call it Weeknight with Jay Leno so if it’s successful, they have a franchise. They didn’t want to do that because in the TV listings, it would be listed as Weeknight and then it looks like a Dateline show.”

On taking hits from rival execs: “I enjoy it. I know these guys. (CBS President and CEO) Les Moonves was the bartender at The Improv when I worked there. It’s trash talking. If you like playing the game it’s great fun and I enjoy playing the game. They all vowed none of their guests would be on our show. OK. But we’re all here to benefit. Television is dying. It’s not doing well. We can either all support each other and support each others’ shows, or we can go back into our little caves and pretend like we’re the only thing on. “

On how TV has changed: “It’s all about what’s happening right now. The shows that do well – Dancing with the Stars, American Idol, the Olympics, the Super Bowl – are shows that happen right now in real time. Now everybody is Twittering and sending instant messages and sending emails as the show is happening so information is good for only a day.

I don’t know what TV is anymore. In the old days, prime time and family hour and late night, these were all easily defined terms. I talk to young people today and they don’t even know Channel 4 or Channel 7. They know Channel 147 and they know Burn Notice is on USA. They don’t see network TV any different than cable TV. It’s just another thing that’s on for me. I’m old school and I’m old.”

On what he did during his hiatus: “Working on my cars and motorcycles. My life is not that exciting.”

On the show’s musical guests: “When I was kid if you wanted to see a music act, you saw them on Ed Sullivan, you saw them on a specific music show and that was the only time you saw them. Now you can see acts anytime you want. We’re trying to put together acts you don’t normally see together and who don’t perform together. We got Jay-Z, Kanye West and Rhianna. That’s something you’d see at the Grammys or the BET Awards. We’ll have less music than the Tonight Show but more unusual pairings. Music gives you a great studio audience but doesn’t necessarily give you a great TV audience.”

On his ideal guests: “There are really only about 18 (stars) in the whole world who make a difference. I bet you couldn’t name 18. You try to have a good show. A guest star is icing on the cake. It makes them want to watch a little bit more. How many times can you get Tom Cruise, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie? The key is trying to have something people like.”

On not having a desk: “We’ll have two chairs and it’ll just be a conversation area without a desk. I’m kinda glad the desk is gone. It’s fun being able to change a little bit.”

On the dip in ‘Tonight Show’s ratings: (laughs) “That’s not my problem. I went through this when I took over for Johnny. You go through the six to eight weeks of “you stink, you suck, we hate you!” People are loyal to whoever the last person was. You either whine or complain about it, or you put your nose through the grindstone, you write the jokes and you do it. Conan has handled it great. He doesn’t complain, he puts on a good show every night and now it’s up people to pick up on it or they don’t. He’ll be fine.”

On losing weight: “I lost 12, 14 pounds. I had the worse diet. You get into that Tonight Show rut, you come in everyday and say, ‘Oh, there’s a donut there and there’s a big glass of some stupid soft drink.’ So you just try to cut out that stuff. I haven’t become bulimic. I try to run four hours a day — two in the morning, two at night.”

On why he loves ‘Lost’: “I had everybody on the show before I even saw it. This five months that I’ve been off, I got the whole five seasons (on DVD). My wife and I have been watching, like, five hours a night. I’m almost to the end. I find it very clever, very well written. I think it’s a very imaginative show.”

On TIME proclaiming him the future of television: “That is hilarious. That shows you the trouble we’re in. I guess it’s very funny. It’s not that big a deal. There’s another issue coming out next week.”