Leno at 10 p.m.

Nice photo.
I'll take 'People whose faces are too small for their heads' for $400, Alex.

 

Leno got out-Nielsened by the FX series Sons Of Anarchy a couple of weeks ago; it was the first time a basic cable series had beaten him.

http://www.thrfeed.com/2009/10/sons-of-anarchy-beats-leno-forgotten-for-first-time.html

About the same time, the new head of programming said he was moving away from the previous philosophy of "managing for margins" which originally resulted in the Leno primetime move.

http://www.thewrap.com/article/new-nbc-chief-gaspin-were-it-win-it-8993?page=1

None of this can make Leno feel overly comfortable.

 

Way to support your colleagues Jay. I don't mind people campaigning for a job, as long as the job isn't currently filled.

Once Comcast buys NBC it will be interesting to see the network actually try to air some good shows.

 

Two things:

1) I don't think Leno is necessarily campaigning for the Tonight Show job back, but I wouldn't blame him. It's worth noting that he was shoved out entirely against his will and was a good little soldier while they handed his job to Conan. That decision by NBC has proved to be a disaster on both ends.

2) This experiment will end, and sooner rather than later. Seriously, the local affiliate GMs are going to be out for blood by the end of this November sweeps period. The local NBC station in my market has seen its local 10pm news go from a strong #1 to fighting for 3rd, and it's 100% because of the Leno show/Conan move.

 

Funny how nobody figured to tell affiliates "Oh yeah, we'll get killed in November when you set your ad rates."

I always saw the move as a stopgap - either give NBC time to develop a new slate of shows or wait for a sale to go through.
I've read that the network doesn't have much in the bullpen other than Chuck and Parenthood for this season.

 

If it's inevitable, then Jay doesn't need to campaign for a job that's already filled.

Just let it play out.

And while I don't find Jay to be the funniest guy (by a long shot) and I almost never watch him, I've always thought he was a good guy and am disappointed in this move by him.

As a freshman in college, I was somehow drafted by a friend to work security for a Leno appearance at Boston College. (If you knew how skinny & less than intimidating I was as a freshman in college, you'd understand how funny this is.)

Jay drove himself to the show. He was nice as hell to everyone in the green room and was funny and gracious with the audience.

 

Do the affiliates think NBC has a kick-ass Plan B waiting in the wings? It's not like they have ground-breaking dramas on stand-by, ready to go. If they canned Leno's show -- and I don't expect them to -- they'll probably run "Dateline" or something like that in the spot.

 

It would probably do better.

In reality, it would be almost impossible to abandon the Leno approach this season -- but they'd better get more shows in development for next season, and soon.

 

NBC is the Indiana Pacers of network television: a team filled with decent role players, but no stars. The Office is Danny Granger: a nice, underrated player, but not someone who can dominate every night. If NBC had two big hits -- they passed on House, among others -- that would help them carry a night and be good lead-ins for other shows, they'd be in fine shape. What they are doing is the equivalent of the Pacers saying, "We don't think we can find another LeBron or even Reggie Miller, so lets just make Dan Dickau our leader since he'll play for cheap."

I can't see a scenario where Jay and Conan are in their same slots in 3 years and one of them will be on another network by then. Which is precisely the scenario NBC was trying to prevent when they created this half-assed plan. Way to think ahead guys.

As far as Leno's comments, he's never trusted the TV biz. His saying is "Never fall in love with a hooker." So he'll do whatever they ask, but with the attitude that "if this fails, I can still get comedy club bookings. TV is nice, but I can't rely on it to pay the bills."

 

Hate to admit this, but Letterman and his sexual escapades couldn't have come at a worse time for Leno. Leno needs to do something...anything...that will draw eyeballs back to his show. He had them in the beginning so people were willing to give him a try. Now he needs to get them back...and fast. I gave the show a month and gave up. Just not interesting to me...not even his guests.

So now I use the 10-11 PM time to watch shows that I have TiVo'd instead of anything that's actually airing live.

 

In the latest Men's Journal, there's an article about Leno and his love of old and odd cars. In it, there's a mention of NBC trying to get him to host an Americanized version of "Top Gear." He declined, not wanting to do the old mixing of his job (TV) and his hobby (cars). But if he'd not declined, then we'd be seeing another primetime hour of Leno each week.

 

I think they made a pilot for an Americanized version of Top Gear with Adam Carolla, but it wasn't picked up.