Please understand the people Leno talks to are New Yorkers. I used to live in upstate (Rochester) and found the locals, as a group, to be totally ignorant of anything outside of their own little worlds.
For example, my neighbor, a college educated lady of about 30, was convinced that New York had mountains higher than those in Arizona. She firmly believed that Arizona was a land of scalping, rampaging indians and sand dunes!
Hers was not an isolated view and I was amazed at how ignorant of the world the people were.
Sorry New Yawkas, but that's what I saw.
Yeah, and people where I grew up on Lawn Guyland believed that all southerners were ignorant racist yokels. Yet these same Long Islanders would collectively freak out if a black person moved on their block and thought all Latin Americans were "Spanish" and ate Tacos.
Leno is based in Burbank, California. He does most of his interviews with people in the Los Angeles area, not NYC. NYC is where Letterman is based.