Jay Leno Shows Off His “Brand-New” Ear and Face on ‘The Kelly Clarkson Show’ After Suffering Third-Degree Burns

Jay Leno is making his triumphant return after injuring his face in a gruesome accident last fall. The comedian, who had to receive multiple skin grafts after suffering burns in his car garage in November 2022, showed off his fresh face in an appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show yesterday (March 1).

“You look great,” Clarkson told her guest, who replied, “This is a brand-new face. It’s unbelievable!”

Leno briefly explained, “I was working on a car and I got a face full of gasoline, and it caught fire,” before joking, “I had been eating a Flamin’ Hot Dorito … when I bit into it, it set my face on fire.”

The comedian switched to a more sober tone when he told Clarkson his injuries were “pretty bad,” but got right back to joking after she exclaimed, “you can’t tell at all!”

Gesturing to his jawline, Leno quipped, “You’d think there’d be a zipper here or something, but no. This is like a brand-new face. Only for the second time in my career am I the new face of comedy. I got it once in the ’80s and now I get it again.”

He added, “That’s a brand-new ear!” while pointing to the side of his face as Clarkson chuckled.

Leno has been continually transparent about his injuries and recovery, and appeared on The Today Show to discuss the incident and aftermath in-depth during a December 2022 interview.

He said at the time that he had been working on his 1907 White Steam Car with his friend Dave Killackey, and got a “face full of gas” because of a clogged fuel line.

He told Today, “The fuel line was clogged so I was underneath it. It sounded clogged and I said, ‘Blow some air through the line,’ and so [Killackey] did …  And suddenly, boom, I got a face full of gas. And then the pilot light jumped and my face caught on fire.”

Leno spent 10 days at Los Angeles’ Grossman Burn Center, where he received treatment before getting discharged in late November.

The Kelly Clarkson Show airs weekdays at 3 p.m. Check local listings on the website, and watch Leno’s appearance in the video above.