NBC has ended days of speculation and rumors by announcing the cancellation of Jay Leno’s prime-time program. NBC Chairman Jeff Gaspin told reporters in Los Angeles today that “The Jay Leno Show” will go off the air on Feb. 12. Gaspin stated that the network hopes to keep Leno for an 11:35 p.m. show, Conan O’Brien for 12:05 p.m. and then Jimmy Fallon to follow. But, Gaspin adds, “It’s not a done deal yet.” Deals with the hosts, who have had the weekend to mull over the new schedule, are still being worked out.
Last spring, NBC gave Leno a new vehicle, “The Jay Leno Show,” an hour-long talk show that airs five nights a week at 10 p.m. This move was made to make way for O’Brien, who NBC hoped would bring younger viewers to one of its flagship shows. Ratings for the “Tonight Show” have sagged with O’Brien and Leno’s new show has been ignored by viewers and blasted by critics. Gaspin stated that the network was satisfied with “The Jay Leno Show’s” performance but the affiliates were none to happy and complained of losing advertising revenue.
According to TMZ, O’Brien has three options:
- Quit the show and do nothing for four years and collect a cool 80 million.
- Go to ABC or Fox and negotiate a new contract. Apparently NBC would be obligated to make up the difference if the contract was less than his current contract with NBC.
- Stay put and deal with being second fiddle again.
What is your opinion? Do you watch these shows? Should Jay be given his old time slot back?
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Comments
11 Responses to Jay Leno Not Ready For Prime-Time
Jay Leno seems like a nice guy, but I don’t find him all that funny, and I’m not surprised that his 10 o’clock show didn’t have much success – it never seemed like a great idea to me. It seems unfair to Conan O’Brien to push him back after he waited years for the Tonight Show gig. I know that Hollywood isn’t “fair”, and that O’Brien will be well-compensated whatever he decides, but if Leno goes back to 11:30, it feels a bit like someone taking back a gift that they’ve given you. It makes me think less of Leno.
I agree with everything Jennie said.
As I recall, wasn’t this whole thing put in motion because Leno indicated an intention to retire?
Ken Tucker has a piece on EW.com indicating that the new line-up proposed by NBC might not be a bad thing in that it would stagger the head-to-head with Letterman.
I am surprised at the big dollars thrown around in late night television – 80 million for four years? Who is staying up and watching these shows? I consider myself somewhat of a night owl, but it’s a miracle when I am up at that hour and have the TV on. If I do, I am watching Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert anyway…..
I know! I usually have the TV off after The Daily Show (then I read for a while); I can’t imagine staying up to watch something that doesn’t even start until 11:30 p.m.
I have always liked Jay. He appeals more to my age group. I was a big fan of Johnny Carson also. I do think that Jay should step aside. It is like giving a gift back.
However, I did read where Conan is not cutting the mustard either. He reportedly has dropped 2 million viewers from when Jay hosted. The thinking is that it is more of the older crowd that he lost. But there is the theory that he lost viewers because the 10 pm news lost viewer because of Jay’s new show doing so poorly. A lot of finger pointing. LOL
I’m surprised its having toruble at 10. I like him okay, certainly he has been a huge success at a later hour. Who knew the time slot would make such a difference? Its not fair to Conan but thats the way it goes I guess. The newtwork will do what is best for themselves.
Looks like both Jay and Conan ripped into NBC in their monologues last night. Looks like nobody is happy.
So glad I don’t work in the PR department for NBC!
NBC has shown it has no idea what it is doing. When they decided to push Jay out they should have pushed him out! They decided they wanted to go after a younger, hipper audience (mistake #1) and when they made this decision they should have just fired Jay and brought in Conan. Instead they allowed Jay to talk them into a 5-year termination date (mistake # 2) and then Jay started to beat Letterman and Jay decided that he didn’t want to leave after all. Then they decided to give Jay a 10pm show (mistake #3) and, in reality, doomed Conan’s shot at any success. Who wants to watch 2 or 3 hours of the same format every night? (I love 24 but I don’t want to watch it 3 hours every night). Now when all of them are failing, they are going to (mistake #4) keep them all on in different time slots! Now they are going to move “the Tonight Show” to 12:05am which isn’t even tonight! Its morning!! How does Jeff Zucker keep his job? This sound like the editor of the Onion is running NBC. With the horrible ratings of MSNBC (4th in a 4 genre race) staring at them, I would think the suits at NBC better clean house. Put on 24 hours of COPS and everything will be ok.
Conan is not taking the offer. I don’t blame him.
http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2010/01/12/conan-releases-statement-on-late-night-situation/
I couldn’t agree with Jeff more. I’m actually having fun watching NBC burn to the ground due to network exec incompetence. They are so out of touch with the audience. I remember years ago when Friends was on and some others, the only station I really watched was NBC. Now I watch 2 shows on NBC and one of them is a reality show (The Biggest Loser).
I feel bad for Jay but I hope he leaves NBC, goes to another network and brings the ratings in for them. I think Jay Leno is a good guy and Idont’ know that he’d take his timeslot back. This thing is going to be a legal mess for a long time.
Remember when Lifetime bought Project Runway? (Ok, I’m probably the only person here who cared about all of that but still)….it was a mess.
Here’s bad timing: I just discovered this Jay Leno show on at 10 about a month ago! I would watch the monologue then go to bed. Oh well.
Erin,
Only two NBC shows?
Thursday night belongs to NBC at this house: Community (not great), Parks and Recreation (getting better), The Office (hooray), and 30 Rock (at present, my favorite.) I really look forward to seeing how Tina Fey writes this Leno/O’Brien fiasco into 30 Rock.