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2ND UPDATE: Leno's Primetime Show Starts Fall 2009
(Includes details and quotes from the NBC/Leno press conference Tuesday)
UPDATE: My source was correct, and NBC will be announcing shortly this major primetime move to strip Jay Leno at 10 PM in valuable and visible primetime. It certainly makes sense because NBC Universal chief Jeff Zucker couldn't afford to let late night's No. 1 host go to a competitor. 
So this way Jay Leno would stay at the network even though Zucker threw him under the bus five years ago by giving The Tonight Show to Conan O'Brien in 2009. It keeps ABC (and also-rans Fox and Sony) away from Leno. And it may very well secure NBC's 10 PM slot and Jay's legacy. Or it could all go into the crapper if Leno's 11:30 PM audience fails to follow him. Or if Jay doesn't attract more eyeballs than his most recent average of 4.8 million viewers tantamount to a mere pittance for primetime. Or if Leno's show cuts into Conan's viewers which cuts into new Late Night host Jimmy Fallon's audience because there's 3 similar programs in a row (and 3 1/2 if you count Carson Daly's abysmal half-hour). Suddenly, there's talk show format fatigue. Conventional wisdom has it that late night viewers are creatures of habit, so the success of a major change like this is far from a given. But NBC's beleaguered owned-and-operated TV stations and affiliates may like this new set-up since it could conceivably provide a stong lead-in for their local news shows. And with NBC's primetime tanking, they may well prefer a known quantity like Leno to another scripted or reality 10 PM ratings disaster. Anyway, news of this NBC shocker began circulating in Hollywood this afternoon, real enough that my first source was getting frantic calls from rival networks about it. It comes right as NBC Universal chief Jeff Zucker foreshadowed to an investors conference today that he's considering cutting the number of hours and even the number of nights that the network airs programming. And after Zucker fired his top TV network/studio programming staff -- but not Ben Silverman -- Friday and this morning.
Since The Tonight Show is a cash cow, Zucker no doubt figures that Leno at 10 PM could be another. So NBC's new slogan should be Nothing But Cheap. As for Leno, he and his powerhouse law firm Ziffren Brittenham have a win-win situation -- another fat contract that, this time, shouldn't include a non-compete clause. But this isn't about money for Jay; it's about respect from Jeff. (Leno has said publicly that he's able to bank his entire Tonight Show salary and live on the hefty fees from his hectic personal appearance schedule.
Jay officially ends his hosting of The Tonight Show May 29th, and Conan O'Brien starts on June 1st. (Leno was going to be paid for all of 2009 by NBC even though he's only working six months of it. He couldn't start anywhere new until January 2010 because of a non-compete clause.) So much for everyone including me thinking it was a lock for Leno to move to ABC as Jimmy Kimmel's lead-in. Now my NBC news today sounds like a game-changer. This is bonafide behind-the-scenes late night drama. But Leno has publicly told the press that he was "done" with NBC (and later claimed he was "misunderstood") Here's what Leno stated: "I am definitely done next year — with NBC. I'm not a beach guy, and the last time I was in my pool was to fix a light. Don't worry, I'll find a job somewhere." He's also been making merciless fun of NBC and Jeff Zucker on the air. I've been saying for some time that, judging from Leno's animus towards Zucker, there was no way Leno would stick with NBC.
In recent months, it looked clear that Jay was ABC-bound and on the air there in 2010. I'd also heard from sources that Jimmy Kimmel was "OK" with having his time slot moved, and ABC extended its option with its current late night host to keep him at the network through at least 2010. At the Television Critics Association briefing no long ago, ABC Entertainment topper Steve McPherson stated "there's absolutely room for both" Kimmel and Leno, and pledged that Jimmy would be fully consulted every step of the Jay negotiation -- something Zucker failed to do with Leno. "I can't believe they're going to let this guy go at the top of his game," McPherson said. "If that happens, I guess we'll look at it at the time, and Jimmy will be involved in those discussions, and that will be that."
Meanwhile, Jimmy Fallon started doing a Late Night Web show tlast night to work out the kinks because Conan was so hopeless when started hosting. Fallon will get TV time on the air following Leno as O’Brien takes a breather and then prepares to take over The Tonight Show. Meanwhile, how alarming for NBC that Late Late Show's Craig Ferguson has caught up with Conan ratings-wise.
- Maybe Zucker Will Just Do Away With NBC Programming Altogether
- NBC BLOODBATH: More Executives Fired
- NBC UNIVERSAL SHAKE-UP!
- NBC Universal Plans Hundreds Of Layoffs
- Jay Pulls A Jimmy
- Leno Officially Done With NBC On May 29
- Jay Leno Hints That ABC Is In His Future
- Leno vs NBC: Last Night's Latest Round...
- Is Leno Starting to Hint About His Future?
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Wow, what an awful idea! If you want to cut the hours from the schedule, just cut them!
Hard to believe that NBC would have three interview shows per night: Leno, Conan and Jimmy Fallon.
Come to think of it, it’s hard to believe anything NBC’s doing these days.
NBC News has been quacking for decades about wanting a one-hour network telecast. CBC / Canada strips a one-hour news / magazine block at 1000pm, The National,” that has been successful forever. And they want to find a way to keep Leno at NBC. Solution: do a live 10p strip that consists of news, newsmagazine, and Leno standup / comment… in whatever sequence and proportion makes sense on any given night. Make it a liquid, unpredictable hour. Cheap, timely, real.
FYI: Jimmy Fallon is not, was not, and will never be funny.
This is great, Leno’s pretty cool guy.
support heavy metal music
Jay is good clean fun, but Conan is penis and masterbating oriented and I turn him off whenever he comes on
Why does Jimmy Kimmel matter. Please someone explain. This guy is a non entity. He’s not funny. Not smart. Not good looking. Now in real life he may be smart but as far as on air he just is not. He brings nothing to the table. I am so sorry that ABC doesn’t take a shot on someone else. Someone with talent. Jimmy is not talented.
Also, unfortunately his buddy Adam Carolla is stuck on radio when in fact, Adam is the one with talent. But listen to the radio show and you will hear Adam droll over Kimmel. That’s his insecurity.
We need to step up and admit Jimmy Kimmel must go. I have nothing against him personally. He just is such a product of the garbage of entertainment of the times.
Thank you.
I thought that after the changeover Conan was supposed to become the star, but now he’s still gonna be relegated to Leno’s second
fiddle? According to other reports, Leno’s going to keep basically the same show, in the same format and even filming in the same studio, just under a different name and moved up to 10 p.m. I hope Conan walks away (or even to another network) and tells NBC to go screw themselves. The only thing this accomplishes is to make Conan tone down everything that’s funny about his show – his humor now is much too sophisticated for the pre-midnight crowd – and to force me and my Tivo to make a horrible choice between Conan or Colbert. Can Conan still walk away from the deal? What happens then?
Does anyone watch network TV anymore?
NBC sucks, only good show on it lately has been My Name Is Earl, I’d gladly pay the price in losing that show to see the entire network, along with MSNBC and CNBC all just go right into the crapper.
Well, I guess if Zucker is insistent on reducing the number of hours that NBC programs then this is as good an idea as any since it at least allows them to keep Leno. But I think it’s pretty sad that it’s come to this. And I agree with whoever said that 3 talk shows every night is a bit much. Really, though, NBC is going to be in trouble if the new show tanks or if Leno decides to retire in a few years.
yay, Nightline lives on on ABC~
SN “his humor now is much too sophisticated for the pre-midnight crowd”
Are you kidding me? howdy Dowdy is the farthest thing from sophistcated…Maybe after a bunch of bong hits??
They are moving to 10 because They want the Daily Show crowd….
Well at least they’ve already backed off of last year’s brilliant idea of only running reality in the 8 pm hour. Otherwise they’d only be programming 6-7 hours of scripted tv a week.
Conan’s a panty-sniffing retard. He’ll throw a fit over this deal and threaten to leave, but then stay on anyway just to personally annoy me and every other red-blooded leno-lovin’ viewer who appreciates good, clean comedy.
Here’s a suggestion for all free TV networks, even PBS to some degree:
Get rid of the “national/world” news at 5:30 PM. We’re all driving home, most of us don’t get home till 7 PM, if we’re lucky and aren’t caught in traffic. In fact, most of the local stations need to get rid of local news at 5 AM, 6 AM, noon, and 4 PM, besides the 5 PM. If the majority of people work 9 AM to 5 PM, which means we leave the house at 7 AM to slowly inch our way to the office, then, please run the local and national/world news between 6:30 AM and 7 AM, so we can be out the door by then. 15 minutes for local stuff, including sports and weather (I worked at a TV station that did news, 30 minutes is a stupid amount of time to fill), then allow the network to run national/world news from 6:45 AM to 7 AM, again, giving it to us fast. Now, moving on to the evening, similar thing. From 6:30 PM to 7 PM, same exact format. Quick and fast news. All free TV networks should do this (CBS, Fox, ABC, NBC, MyNetworkTV, The CW and PBS). Allow the locals to cheaply buy syndicated programming again, including cartoons for the hours of 7 AM to 9 AM and 3 PM to 5 PM. How about two afternoon movies? One from 11 AM to 1 PM and another from 1 PM to 3 PM! From 9 AM to 11 AM, run some old stuff like Matlock or Walker Texas Ranger or Hart to Hart, etc. From 5 PM to 7:30 PM, how about some sitcoms or sci-fi shows from the past, huh? Stuff like The X Files or Perfect Strangers or Alf, etc. That means 8 PM to 11 PM, five days a week, is network time! That’s only 15 hours weekly, allowing Leno-style talk shows to go on at 10 PM in brilliant! Forget the local news at 11 PM, seriously. Let the stations go off the air or run infomercials from 11 PM till 6:30 AM. If the networks wanted to run at seven days weekly, that’s 21 hours of prime time. Combined with just a measly half-hour of news a day, not factoring in sports, that leaves very little time to fill.
But no network would do something anymore that would make sense, now would they?
I personally have watched Letterman for many, many years and thought he was great and still do. I moved over to Leno a couple years ago because he has great skits and he does a very good job with his delivery in his monologue. I usually watch local news at 10 but I’ll forgo that and watch Jay. I hope he keeps the “Headlines” and “Jaywalking” with him in his new slot because I’ve come to appreciate those skits about the best. As for Conan – If he were the only thing on TV I’d certainly be going to bed a bit earlier. I just can’t handle his crazy idiotic attempt at humor and his “better than thou” attitude. I’m sure he’s appreciated by a vast audience but he’s just not my bag. Of course I wish them all the best and I think I’ll be able to make the 10 p.m. change quite easily.
They blew it when they decided to dump Jay, what a stupid move. Yes, he’s bland and not too funny, but people watch, those same people won’t watch Conan, who by the way, also isn’t very funny unless he’s doing a bit outside the studio. I think they would watch Jay at 10 and then go to bed after the news. Conan will still have his college crowd that can laugh at the masturbating bear, etc.
I was wondering why some of the comments had the intellectual depth of George W. Bush on a Jagermeister bender, and sure enough, I go to Drudge Report and see he has linked to this column.
I enjoy morons pontificating on the machinations of other morons.
Sorry, dimwits, but your desire to see a late-night block of Larry the Cable Guy and the rest of the Blue Collar troglodytes ain’t happenin’ any time soon.
Conan is actually funny, has a young, more-educated audience, and is clearly the future.
Let unfunny, joke-stealing Leno leave and make a few bucks for ABC for a few years.
Also, if you like Leno, you’re an idiot. Thank you.
Who watches late night t.v. anyway? Truckers? Security guards? Insomniacs? The only people that currently watch Conan O’Brien must be jobless college kids who like jokes about “poo poo” and masterbation. They are still out DRINKING or SMOKING POT at 10pm.
gotta love it when drudge links to nikki. the tone of the posts becomes so… what’s the word… shitty. isn’t there a house hunters marathon you could be watching instead of polluting this usually-thoughtful sight with your half-thoughts?
i do think a drudge-linked thread during the strike is what gave us the brilliant turn of words “go jay go!” ah the memories that bon-mot brings back; it is my personal madeleine.
go jay go indeed… go AWAY. the only reason american tunes in to you is to see the jokes they thought of too.
parr, allen, merv, snyder and johnny are all rolling over in their graves…R.I.P.
Where is all this Conan hating coming from? I guess this must be the Leno crowd who would not know humor if it hit them in the face. You people suck. I will watch Conan no matter what. Unless NBC makes him become another Leno.
wherrrrrrrre’s johnny??????
How ridiculous. I’m sorry. I get that this makes some financial (and ratings) sense, which is clearly what Zucker’s only goal is. I see no artistic sense in this decision, all it does is take away a major part of NBC’s primetime block with shows like Law and Order and others. So, for NBC, television ends at 10 now instead of 11.
My, how this network has fallen. What an embarrassment.
Pretty smart. Remember the days of Merv Griffin in primetime? Though SAG just lost five hours a week of potential 10:00 p.m. programming.
GOD BLESS YOU anHonestAnswer!!! I’ve been commenting on this site for months how bad Jimmy Kimmel Live is. It’s unfathomable how it’s still on the air. It’s not comically relevant or interesting in any way, the host is a raccoon-eyed, teleprompter addicted shlub – and most compellingly, Kimmel’s crappy ratings are almost IDENTICAL with brand new shows, as they were a year ago with strike reruns. HELLO…falling asleep after Nightline with the TV still on, anyone??!!
And now that King Leno won’t be riding in on his white stallion to provide Kimmel a proper comedy lead in, it MUST be canceled, right? Who exactly is manning the switch at ABC???
It was a nice Make-A-Wish Foundation moment giving Kimmel a show, but now the kid is dead.
Attention clean comedy fans! It’s now cool to use the phrase “panty-sniffing retard.”
Conan O’ Brien is slapstick funny. Jay Leno is witty funny. It’s a matter of opinion, but I like Jay Leno better.
Amazing how many people lay into Conan because they don’t consider his comedy “clean.” As if Jay doesn’t do jokes about Bill Clinton and Viagra every other night, and as if something ceases to be funny objectively just because it’s not clean to you personally. Sheesh.
I like Leno just fine, but Conan’s hysterical. Plenty of goofiness, but it’s all tongue-in-cheek, and every now and then he comes up with something truly brilliant.
Craig Ferguson is the most talented guy in late night! He may not yet have the class of Leno or Letterman, but no one can match his wit or comedic timing. His monologues are flawless!
Nikki astutely pointed out that this move could go south if Leno’s late-night audience doesn’t follow him; what gives me pause is what would happen even if his entire late-night audience shows up. Leno dominates his current daypart, but his most recent average is 4.8 million viewers with a 1.3 in 18-34. He’s going to need slightly more viewers than that to be competitive with the other nets at 10:00. Is there really that big an audience for Jay’s act?
This idea would certainly changed the landscape of television in the 10pm hr. It actually very interesting although it locks NBC into the same program at 10pm for 5 nights a week, which could be good or bad!
Chuck
zucker was a horrible choice for prime time years ago and this proves it: he couldn’t identify a scripted hit if it crawled up his butt. so he kills the nbc legacy of smart dramas and comedies and now will turn it into some cheap reality/chatfest. just what we need. storytellers, gird your loins. it’s getting ugly…
What are you talking about THREE consecutive talkers?
People forget that insomniacs and suicides watch all the way through Carson Daly at 1:30 am.
The real alarm should be that NBC now produces five more hours of prime time shows IN HOUSE – and that production companies will be looking more towards cheaply-produced shows directly for cable (LEVERAGE, DAMAGES).
Jay Leno averages around 4 million viewers a night. How does NBC justify 4 million viewers a night at the 10:00 PM spot? When Law and Order re run does double that easily. Jeff Zucker has destroyed NBC, I don’t understand why he is still in charge. The reason why Barack Obama won the presidency is because he studied the DVD Presidential Debates Gone Wild. See it at http://www.PresidentialDebatesGoneWild.com It should be studied in every high school history class.
This is the kiss of death. NO one is going to watch this.
Good for everyone. Glad they came up with a solution to make everyone happy. Hopefully, we’ll see these three shows experimenting wih the format and finding their own niches. Could be really fun for a talk show fan like myself.
I don’t think Jay can pull off a Jon Stewart-type show or that his current show would work at 10 p.m. It sounds like a niche cable idea more than a network idea.
If NBC had the ability to create and sustain new dramas, there wouldn’t be the need to strip Leno five nights/week. The failure of their entire development department is quite obvious. I don’t think that this is going to save NBC.
Excellent. I cannot fathom why anyone finds Conan amusing.
“Meanwhile, how alarming for NBC that Late Late Show’s Craig Ferguson has caught up with Conan ratings-wise.”
Obrian is a boring sophomoric jerk with freckles. Ferguson is an engaging sophomoric jerk with class.
I’ll take Ferguson any day over the tall kid who thinks that he has something to contribute to late night television.
I’m going to laugh my azz off when Obrian finds himself loosing market share to letterman who I don’t like but respect.
Hey, Leno fans in Eastern time zone will be delighted with the new time.
“NBC News has been quacking for decades about wanting a one-hour network”
They can’t even do a half hour of news. Forget that.
They keep going back to the same small talent pool who all think alike and all live in the same tiny bubble. When a real company is in trouble, it spends money on salesmen who work new areas. In the TV world that would translate into writters. They need to respect and write to a larger audience then they seem to be capable of now. And they need to be told this because obviously they are too stupid to figure it out themselves.
Conan is and was the Stilton cheese of talk show hosts, and not everyone can handle Stilton cheese. But I think the idea that Conan was “hopeless” when he started at “Late Night” is arguable. Conan was different from Leno and Letterman, but he was smart and hilarious, and the writing and sketch players were great. I wish the people who say Conan was bad in the first couple of seasons would try watching a few bootlegs.
How to be an NBC Conan O’Brian multi-millionaire:
1. Gyrate hips like a maniac.
2. Hop like a bunny on the white star and tell Max “We have a really good show tonight.”
3. Listen to stoned slacker generation X audience make sounds like seals being burned alive.
4. Repeat same shtick night after night, week after week, month after month, and year after year.
5. Cash enormous checks while NBC goes down the tubes.
FYI: Jimmy Fallon is not, was not, and will never be funny.
————————
FYI: Conan O’Brien is not, was not, and will never be funny.
Doesn’t much matter to me what they do with Leno, et al as I stopped watching Leno, in favor of Nightline and Jimmy Kimmel years ago.
I think Leno doing the same format at 10:00pm is a great idea. Someone should have tried this a long time ago. Congratulations to Jay Leno, I will watch everynight!
Now, who ever thought of putting Conan inplace of Leno is the one who should be fired. Conan is terrible and hard to look at. At least I will still have Jimmy Kimmel to watch late night!
After ten years of listening from time to time, I still don’t find Colin O’Brien or Jim Kimmel very funny. NBC will ratings for these shows will die after Leno rides off to a normal life.
GET RID OF JIMMY KIMMEL…
I think it’s time to start a petition. Again, nothing personal but he’s awful and the show is awful. The ratings have never been good. I will thank anyone who starts a petition, blog, website dedicated to this. I just think it’s time to give someone else a shot.
JIMMY KIMMEL MUST GO NOW.
Thank you.
Well, this will certainly save NBC a LOT of money with new series startups, original production ongoing costs, and the need for diverse programming…
Whether it is able to retain audience share is a whole ‘nother story…
Its a wise move to KEEP Leno.
I enjoy his show and don’t mind the time.
Zucker’s solution to poor ratings and ad revenue has always been to reduce investment in the quality of the product. With the obvious result that the quality, ratings, and ad revenue declines. He knows no way to stop this cycle. He is in the wrong business. It can only end in 24/7 infomercials, then a test pattern with an Indian on it.
Getting Leno out of late tells me that this ZUCKER is one stupid idiot that a board and a board of directors are as ignorant for keeping the guy.
In tried watching Conan and he can’t hold a bag for leno to urinate in.
When i first heard this i was shocked.
I wish Leno had gone to another network so NBC could drift away into a world and never to return.
The more I think about it, the less sense it makes.
Leno is a proven late-night ratings winner. In prime-time, who knows? Nothing else NBC does there seems to work. And if NBC is so risk-adverse money-wise, God only knows what they’ll have to pay Leno now.
I don’t like it. Jay, move to ABC, where you’ll do what you do best and continue to win the 11:30-12:30 timeslot. And make NBC look like the clueless moroins they are.
Sam… wait… Leno does comedy?
this is a move prompted by bean counters and executives who understand nothing of viewing habits. NBC will save money from not doing 10pm dramas, and then lose their audience and get killed in ratings.
they will have no great 10pm dramas and the other two will swamp them.
what a dumb idea.
as “anonymous” says: zucker was a horrible choice for prime time years ago and this proves it: he couldn’t identify a scripted hit if it crawled up his butt. so he kills the nbc legacy of smart dramas and comedies and now will turn it into some cheap reality/chatfest.
completely true…unfortunately network executives have no taste/or vision and can’t think themselves out of their declining financial box.
Don’t forget, this was also done – or perhaps primarily done – as another way to make the network less reliant on SAG and their ill-timed strike threats.
With more reality, talk and game shows, actors will be lucky if they even make fictional series anymore.
Time to sign the contract and get back to work, and be glad to just be working.
None of the late night guys are particularly funny. At least Ferguson puts some manic effort into his performances. Leno’s monologues are tired and predictable, his writers clearly out of ideas. Kimmel is not very good at stand-up, his background in radio clearly shows. His use of Uncle Frank and his security guy are tired and boring. Same with Letterman who burns up time with tics and repetition. At least occasionally Kimmel’s prepared bits can be really, really funny (his bit with Richard Simmons was hilarious). Letterman can’t even do that. He’s terrible. O’Brien is bad too, but sometimes he has bits that he hits out of the park, most of them prepared outside the studio as noted above. None of these guys are worth staying up for.
That being said, NBC and TV in general are in crisis. As late as the early 1980’s, Saturday was a big TV night with hit series like Mary Tyler Moore, Love Boat, Bob Newhart Show, drawing more viewers at those slots than CSI or American Idol today, in a much smaller population. As late as the late 1990’s NBC was running shows that drew respectable ratings (Pretender, Profiler) on Saturdays.
Now there’s no first run scripted programming at 10 pm. That’s stupid. NBC’s problem is that they can’t produce programs people will watch — they’re at least as bad as Detroit and the rest of them: ABC, CBS, Fox, and CW are no better.
Silverman, and Zucker, need to go. New execs need to put on shows fast, that people will watch. Including the demographic that TV abandoned — men. Put on shows that have action, adventure, excitement, and not dull, predictable PC-laden stuff like “Heroes” with soap opera-like dullness, and people will watch.
Particularly in a recession when broadcast TV is the cheapest option (as opposed to Cable or Satellite) available for entertainment.
This move is an admission of failure and weakness. GE needs to clean house.
Leno is like Ford in the 70s. He’s gonna be outdated soon. Get rid o him.
When comedy was comedy it was entertaining, now that it has become political ridicule indoctrination it’s lost its glammor! I presonally don’t see how any of it survives, it’s time the people rise up and boycott it all!!!! Many are as the numbers show!
Between talk shows, news programs, game shows, talent contests, etc., SAG members will be lucky if there’s even anything left for them to do.
Leno should go to Fox and get it over with. Fox is the best network.
Conan does 12 year old humor if you can call it humor at all. Whoever said he was sophisticated doesn’t get out much. Jay is MOR. Kimmel is funny but on too late. Letterman is my only option. He is the closest thing to Carson that is available and ain’t nobody ever going to top Johnny.
The fact that NBC has left that douche bag Carson Daily on for years is proof that they don’t have a clue.
Network TV is going the way of the Music biz, down the toilet.
There are more bad ideas and bad taste here than on network television. Hart to Hart in primetime?? Conan is funny??? The sky is falling, my friends.
“So much for everyone including me thinking it was a lock for Leno to move to ABC as Jimmy Kimmel’s lead-in.” Holy crap Nikki – you were wrong about something?! Truly the apocalypse is coming!!! (Also, no one is going to watch this show after the first month)
ABSURD. Seriously, I don’t see this working at all. Could be wrong but 10pm for a show like that with Leno? And what’s worse is if Leno fails at 10pm, then he’s damaged goods and the other nets won’t want to pick him up for an 1130. What is he thinking? I used to think he was a smart guy but now I’m having second thoughts. As for NBC making good on their promise to cut one hour of scripted programming from primetime… all I can say is = sad. Historically what a fantastic network and I think we’re really finally watching the beginning of the end.
These shows are so lame, with their phony interview styles and sophmoric humor. As out of date as the Carol Burnett Show.
Can anyone tell me the amount of money this might save in the short term compared to producing scripted programming and how much they might lose when they factor in the residuals from repeats and dvd sales of scripted programming?
I can’t see this being a winning situation financially in the long run and my gut tells me Les Moonves hasn’t stopped laughing yet.
I’ll be the only one here who’ll stick up for early Conan, but fifteen years ago, that show was original and HILARIOUS. Maybe that’s because Robert Smigel was his head writer, but there was something fresh and clever on that show, back when all the critics hated it. Oh, and it had Andy Richter!
Now, Conan has morphed into “Conan”, his shtick has grown predictable and stale, and he comes across as completely fake – he’s immersed himself into that character he plays.
Still, I feel bad for Cone. He was promised the brass ring of late night, and Leno, instead of getting gone, gets the first prime time daily talk show.
Jay Leno is, and has always been, funny for ten minutes a week: during HEADLINES, and that’s pure found humor.
I’m a little confused here. Is this just a short-term fix for NBC and an elaborate way to get around the agreements they’d already made? If after 6 months or so Conan’s ratings are way down, couldn’t NBC just fire him and replace him with Leno again while no longer having to pay Conan the $50 million they’d have owed him if they didn’t give him the Tonight Show at all? I suspect Conan’s lawyers got some phone calls tonight.
Actually, it’s a VERY smart move.
Fallon will die quicker than Chevy Chase did.
That will leave NBC with a 10 and 11:30 show that will kill the competition.
First NBC replaces Tim Russert with David Gregory and now puts a talk show on at 10 PM five nights a week?
As Casey Stengel once said, “Does anyone here know how to play this game?”
Don’t you see what NBC has done?
They’ve changed nothing. Conan still follows Leno. They are such cowardly asswipes and Leno is such a two-faced backstabbing asshole that he couldn’t just go. He had to stay and screw Conan just like he did Letterman.
He will fail at 10pm. No one wants to see tha mug of this unfunny stiff in primetime.
Jesus Christ! Does everyone at NBC have his head up his Zucker?
Another five hours of programming gone. You wanna put the nail in the industry’s coffin, SAG? Settle.
a little TV history from the 50’s before i was born… when Steve Allen moved from hosting The Tonight Show to “Primetime” Sunday nights, he got clobbered by Ed Sullivan. Jack Paar’s primetime ventures didn’t grab big ratings either. i like Jay but if history means anything, i doubt if Leno will do any better.
but all THIS will probably have Letterman asking CBS for a primetime slot too.
Guys, Johnny is gone and we’re left with … Conan and Jimmy Fallon. What a deal.
Jay is good, but he’s no Johnny.
The whole format lacks the gravity of a guy like Johnny Carson across all the networks and that’s why it’ll never be the same and never be as entertaining.
Somebody help me out here…I thought I had read that the Leno 10 PM show would be a “variety” show, not another similar talk show…or is this really one and the same? I don’t know.
Who knows if it will work? My gut feeling says give Leno something a little different to do. How about something more like a modern-day Ed Sullivan thing? Maybe a 2009 version of the 70s variety shows? We just saw Rosie O’Donnell lay a giant egg with her crappo attempt at variety. Maybe viewers are actually growing tired of mean-spirited, angry, politically-tinged content, and the pendulum is swinging back to clean, cheesy and safe. If that’s the case, Leno is your perfect personality for that.
To the guy going off about Kimmel — he’s not that bad. He’s clearly intelligent, and has a good understanding of what is going on around. To suggest otherwise is ridiculous. That being said, I don’t think he’s an amazing talk show host. But he’s definitely funny.
Moving on. All of this Conan bashing is ridiculous. Sure, Conan has some beyond-puerile skits that are bad in a self-consciously glib way. I think such skits are an indication that they’ve run out of good stuff to say. But don’t for a second think that a failure on his writer’s parts means that Conan isn’t funny. He has, hands down, the most ingenious and consistently hilarious comedic mind out of anyone in late night right now.
Memo to Gerry -
NBC hasn’t gotten anything right in 10+ years. An astounding record of failure with no hope on the horizon.
The likelihood that their latest plan is a “VERY smart move” is zero.
I thought they were gonna give him a half hour a night, and he’d just do bits like headlines and jaywalking, and there’d be no interviews.
If Jay were smart, he’d load up on bits and minimize the interviews which aren’t his strongsuit anyway.
Then what do they do if it doesn’t work, do like they did with Dateline and just gradually cut back on nights?
This doesn’t seem like a completely-thought-through decision.
So many Kimmel haters, when Conan/Letterman is not even funny it is really just the kiddies and east coast audience who drools over them. Jacking off bear with Conan just got too weird, he does have some funny stuff though and was a former writer.
Kimmels show is very creative and they are constantly trying new things, plus he can carry a good conversation and has good connections with many celebrities. How funny was the whole fucking Matt Daemon/Ben Affleck songs.
I remember when there was nothing on ABC at midnight besides nightline, what the hell do you want on there nothing.
Petition to cancel Kimmel? Why, just don’t watch. His ratings have been growing actually.
BS! They’re moving it because old people like it and they can’t stay up late anymore. Young people don’t even know who Leno is.
Wow…Fossil Fuel Baby Boomers…They want their late night to be earlier…AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Who knew they had a sense of irony?
OLD PEOPLE….before you drive us all off the cliff insisting that you can still drive like you used to, know this: You WILL die. We all will….I know you think you won’t, but that’s not true.
brendan b brown
wheatus
PS…does Leno have the missing JFK evidence or something?….Damn, he just keeps on getting the job everyone else should have.
Worst idea since Chevy Chase was given a talk show!
The details right now of this entire thing are so sketchy, but Conan is, and always has been, a very funny manthing.
Everyone here can speculate all they want, but it’s easier to say something is a bad idea before there are any results.
Can’t we all smile and wait?
At least I can watch Leno and not that piece of crap NBC gave the Tonight Show to. No wonder NBC is in the tubes. Why don’t they just show all those stupid reality shows and get it over with. People are so so so so sick of them, but NBC insists on adding more. Medium a very good show got kicked from night to night and then stuck mid year after the football season was over. After it won awards etc. I guess the people who do the programming got into the punch bowl and never got out.
We will not watch Conan. (period) Can’t stand him or his sick sick humor. Jay this year was toooo political and made too much fun of Bush, McCain, Palin. Nothing so far on Pelosi, Reid, Franks and expecially Obama. That we thought was racist. We used to love his humor and during the writers strike we actually were laughing and loved it the best. Since the writers came back it isn’t funny anymore. Probably won’t watch him on prime time and will miss Headlines and JayWalking. Bummer. Things never stay the same for sure.
I cannot stand Conan’s opening and he must change his format. He isn’t that hot. If he doesn’t change I will use my viewers power and either switch channels and watch a rerun or an old movie or turn it off. NBC really screwed up on this one trading gold for copper.
CBS will cut Leno’s throat with scripted / stunt 10PM programming. They are the only network left that can flow 8PM thru 11PM.
NBC loses
ABC pushes
CBS, FOX uptick
Another prediction: American Idol ratings will be up low double digits this year. (C3)
Leno won’t take my viewership from Conan.
It’s a race in my house to change the channel when Conan does his gay dance to his stage after the Tonight Show ends.
The times that I have tried to watch Conan, I get sick of him laughing at himself.
Oh christ, they’re all boring and pc
NBC is smart by half. Leno is good. He isn’t nasty edgy, just hip smart in his comedy. Conan and Fallon just aren’t at the Leno level. Conan isn’t worth pushing buttons on the remote to see. When I grow up I want to be as smart as the folks at NBC programing think they are.
Craig Ferguson is the real king of late night.
With the success of SNL’s primetime specials, what they should do is work a never-before-seen taped SNL sketch into every primetime Leno hour.
You know they’re sitting on loads of unaired SNL material, and not all of it is crap (and it’s gotta be as good or better than those comedy sketches Leno usually produces, and with the added benefit of SNL branding/promotion). Apparently the “Mark Wahlberg Talks To Animals” sketch took MONTHS to finally make it to air, and that thing was almost a mini-phenomenon.
It would give SNL a nightly chance to react to the latest news, and it’d give the lesser-used SNL cast members a better chance to shine, since there’s only so many minutes available in the Saturday night telecast. Give us more Abby Elliot!
Thas’ my two bits…
Conan used to be funny. It seems like as recently as a couple years ago he was still pretty good — way funnier and wittier than Jay. He was always able to laugh at himself. Witty and smart.
I’m not sure what’s changed. Maybe nothing has and that’s the problem. His stuff’s getting old and tired. Maybe they’re blanding him up for 11:30?
I’ll watch Jay occasionally. He’s mildly entertaining, but he’s only laugh-out-loud funny Monday nights at 11:50. Jimmy Fallon seems like a nice guy, but I can’t imagine his show not crashing and burning. I think the only chance he’s got is if he can create a “goofy, feel good” type show based more on “fun” than “funny”. Wouldn’t be my thing, but maybe it could work.
Fallon is gonna be chillin’ with Carson in about a month.
Jay Leno is a hack.
I can’t decide if Zucker has blackmail material on the GE board or has some magical totem that lets him keep his job as long as he keeps NBC fourth in the ratings.
Arbitrarily setting an end date for Leno and giving Conan the Tonight Show was a patently stupid move. Hiring Silverman wasn’t a hail mary play so much as finger in the dyke moment. His revolutionary programming system is working out about as well as anyone could expect when you pick shows wearing a hood and ear plugs.
So what now, he keeps Leno. He puts relatively cheap programming on for five primetime hours. It all sounds good until you realize that show doesn’t pull down ratings that would win the time slot any night of the week with less popular competition. And the kicker, he puts that show in the timeslot that leads into the affliates’ news. Oh, yeah moves like that are going to bring GE plenty of dough, and make the affliates very happy.
Does nobody realize what this means for scores of one hour writers, producers, directors and actors? We’re talking five hours of jobs GONE.
We’re screwed people.