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Yeah, this was a GREAT idea, Jeff Zucker. Once again, just like last season, NBC ranked fourth in primetime Monday, dead last among all the broadcast networks, with a weak 2-hour Heroes premiere that fell 46% from last year’s opener. At 10 PM, The Jay Leno Show attracted only 5.7 million viewers, but most importantly fell to 1.8 (for 3rd position, since Fox doesn’t program at 10 PM). It had recorded a low of only 2.0 last week during its debut. Nor can NBC save face by boasting about Jay’s demographics since he skews older. As I noted at the time, it was ridiculous for NBC to be crowing about Leno’s “highest-rated” numbers last week when it was only up against repeats. Facing competition this week, the show folded like a house of cards. Which sums up Zucker’s running of the broadcast network, doesn’t it? I can’t imagine why any advertiser would choose Leno over CSI: Miami at 10 PM. The experiment failed. (I’ll have more later.)
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Nikki, good call but not too surprising considering how late night numbers stack up against prime time numbers. Doesn’t NBC have a research department? Frankly, I can’t get past the rank incompetence of yanking a show that’s #1 or tied for #1 in its time slot. Can someone explain that to me again? Oh, that’s right. Too expensive considering Zucker’s emphasis on “the margins” over “the ratings.” I certainly understand the theory behind that strategy, but someone should tell Zucker that that’s the very same strategy that sank the US print newspaper business, which coincidentally reached the height of corporate ownership and peak circulation in the very same year, 1992. When US newspapers focused on squeezing out profit margin over expanding circulation, guess what happened? They started losing circulation! When NBC focuses on profit margin by pushing cheap programming or hiring 2nd tier talent, guess what? They lose audience share! And eventually, you’ll lose enough audience where turning out the lights and locking the door makes the most business sense of all. Which brings us back to the question of which genius at NBC looked at Jay Leno’s late night numbers and predicted he’d be a hit in prime time? Because if they do have a research department, I can guarantee you it wasn’t them.
God I hope they quit this quick – I have to say I’m an NBC viewer by default (young and educated), but Leno at 10 is like McCain picking Palin – It’s cynical and panders to the basest of audiences. More colorful indeed.
As long as Jeff IMELTGESTOCKPRICE Immelt is head of GE, Zucker will remain as head of NBCUNIVERSAL. Zucker could air a pile of manure, complete with staem rising, and Immelt will think it is clever programming. THE EMPEROR HAS NO CLOTHES!!!!!!
“The experiment failed”
You conclude this after ONE EPISODE?
How about give it a year?
Not only has Zucker ruined NBC in primetime, he’s screwing over the 11 o’clock news and destroying the franchise that was the Tonight Show. That’s some major destruction!
Why would anyone want to watch this boring ass shit when they can switch to a real show on another network?
Facing competition this week, the show folded like a house of cards.”
Nikki, it’s only Tuesday. I agree the show doesn’t look very promising. But shouldn’t you wait till the body is dead before shoveling in the dirt?
I think you have to look at what happens for the whole week of premiers, not just one night. Tonight will be easier ABC has sure to fail The Forgotten and tomorrow night the sure to fail Eastwick. In addition he only needs a 1.5 to be profitable last night against stronger competition he did a 1.8. Profit is what counts. Five hours of Jay Leno costs less than just one hour of high priced scripted dramas like Castle and a CSI clone. Remember 46 weeks not 1 not 2 but 46 weeks.
For those saying You can’t base this on one episode, Leno actually got even fewer viewers, 4.9 million on Thursday. A couple other nights have been in the 4 millions. So it’s doing shtity.
The show is an epic failure. 10@10 is laughable with the talent reading cue cards. I hope to god it’s cancelled soon along with the Heroes debacle.
It’s nothing against Jay…many people including myself refuse to watch NBC programming.
Anyone with a working brain could have predicted Jay Leno would flop. Apparently, those in charge at NBC don’t have working brains. I can’t wait to see NBC’s “spin” on coming in dead last last night.
And who is the genius who booked Michael Moore as a guest on Night 2 of the show? If they are going for the older, middle America audience, nothing will make them turn the channel faster than sitting through that blowhard Moore – and the people who like Michael Moore probably switched off the show as soon as he started singing. What an all around mess.
Out of respect (for Jay), I wanted to give him another week to get into it and see if the show improved. It was as droll as ever.
His entrance with his ‘fans’ coming up to kiss his ring is just… CHEESY! And his monologue – he was obviously feeling awkward. The whole thing fell flat on [his] face.
And Barney Frank? BARNEY FRANK?! When he’s sober he sounds like Nathan Lane in “Birdcage”. But he’s trying to be, uh, funny? Yuk-yuk, alright. Jay can’t do Bill Maher on NBC @ ten o’clock.
Gotta admit, Jennifer Garner knocked my socks off as a guest last night But even she couldn’t save this ship which has sailed…
As an out of work TV writer, I could not be more thrilled. Between the strike and the current economy, NBC was simply heartless in putting about 1500 people a week out of work with this ridiculous move. Lets see Zucker try and blame this on Ben Silverman.
You can’t really blame Zucker for this, Nikki. You can only blame Leno and his staff. The shows have been bad. The writing is terribly bland and awful, and the set sucks. And what’s with Jay? It seems like in the 3 months he was off he aged about 10 years.
Heroes was so-so last night. The cast is appealing and the script was OK. I’d like to see ‘em get back to taking more chances.
…But it’s cheap.
Nikki,
I’m not surprised at anything that putz little rat-weasel Jeff Zucker is doing to this once-proud network. You mark my words when I tell you right here and know this network is in danger of finishing in 5th place come the season’s end. Exclude the Olympics and SNF from this equation, if you will. This (Leno) was a risk to begin with and it is failing miserably, like everything else at Nothing But Crap. They canceled Vegas this way a year ago when it was saving Fridays for them and a few other shows that never deserved this to happen and Zucker has been butt-licking so many corps at GE it’s not even funny.
He’s a horrible human being and he, along with Miss Bromstad and Jeff Plestis and Marc Graboff and a few other people there in management seriously need to be shown the damn door right here and now before it really becomes a chaotic situation there. Leno should have jumped to ABC when he had the chance to. For Heroes, this show, along with a few others that twerp Silverman renewed while he was there should have never come to fruition and Bromstad hasn’t got a clue whatsoever in creating new shows for this struggling network. Dateline can only fill so many holes.
I wouldn’t mind an actual attempt to put a funny variety show on the air, but this program was clearly birthed as an act of desperation motivated by:
1. The brilliant strategy of “Hey, let’s stop developing and just produce hits, like KNIGHT RIDER, or MY OWN WORST ENEMY!” leaving NBC without enough material to fill its time slots, and…
2. The desire to avoid the humiliation of letting Jay Leno go, watch him jump to ABC, where he proceeds to trounce Conan. (Hey, I love Conan, but face it, Jay’s got broader appeal.)
Ah well, at least ABC won’t want Jay now.
The question is, how are they defining success?
I think the plan was always to have lower ratings, but the show is supposedly so cheap to make they don’t need as many viewers as a typical network show.
I think the real news is the sad, sad numbers from Heroes. I hear they were terrible. SO the real news to me is not about leno, but about how NBC killed what was for one brief moment a really cool and popular show.
You know this is premature. Granted, no one really thinks the Leno show was a great idea, but I don’t think you can say that definitively until about a year from now. No one expected it to do well again new content, let alone premieres. If you believe the NBC line, the idea is that it will make up for this by providing new content when other networks are in re runs. All things considered, is this a good idea? is this what’s going to happen? probably not, and probably not. but we really can’t say that yet.
I agree that Jeff Zucker should have been dumped a long time ago, but I wouldn’t write off Jay just yet, though the numbers are really bad. Remember that Jay is not going up against any FOX programming, since they don’t broadcast at 10:00 pm, and he wasn’t expected to beat the CBS 10:00 pm lineup anyway, since they already have an established presence with the two CSI shows, The Mentalist, and Numb3rs. It’s debatable how The Good Wife will stand up, but more importantly, how will ABC’s 10:00 pm lineup hold up? The season premiere of Castle debuted to some decent numbers, but will it stay that way? Plus ABC is debuting two new shows at 10:00 pm, The Forgotten, and Eastwick. For all the talk about NBC’s troubles at 10:00 pm, ABC hasn’t exactly done well themselves. If Jay rebounds a bit from this week and ABC’s numbers are dismal, it won’t be been as such a failure.
And why is there so much focus on the ad demos? You realize even during this recession that older viewers actually have money to spend while the 18-34 demo can’t get jobs, and even those who have them are spending as much time on YouTube and Facebook as they do on TV.
My goodness!
Do Hollywood people ever root FOR anyone?
Or is everyone so cravenly jealous of everyone else that they wish for everyone to fail?
What is it with you folks out there?
Here, in the “rest of America” we don’t live like that.
Venom is corrosive. And is usually found in snakes.
Where’s Ernie Kovacs when we REALLY need him?
Hey Bob. Go f*** yourself.
Venom isn’t corrosive, it’s poisonous.
Like bad metaphors and conservative talk-radio.
Wishing failure on Jay’s show isn’t personal – it’s business. Jay’s already had plenty of success – but his show cheapens TV and single-handedly cuts out jobs for hundreds of people (5 prime-time scripted shows, each with casts, crews and writing staffs).
So, please, stay in Rhode Island, enjoy Walmart and have fun playing arm-chair critic to communities and industries that you have zero personal experience with.
Uh, what? Since when do TV shows exist only to provide jobs for people who work in TV? The idea that it’s good to root against Leno because you think we need more Assistant Grips is insanity. And please, drop your elitist nonsense about Wal-Mart. You deride a man you know nothing about (though R.I. isn’t exactly Red State America, bub) for commenting on something you think he knows nothing about. We have a word for that; it’s “hypocritical.”
Thanks for the insight, Bob. I’d post on the “Deadline North Smithfield, Rhode Island Daily” website, but there isn’t one. What is it with you North Smithfield people being so judgmental?
Let me explain a couple of things, Bob. First, I can assure you – and I say this without having ever met her – that Nikke Finke is not jealous of Jay Leno. I think we can just.. presume that.
Second, and to respond more directly to your query, “Hollywood people” root for others all the time. However, a lot of rubbish goes on when heads of studios like Zucker should know better. You may have heard of this, so I’m sure you won’t be shocked to know that most times this town is run on ego and not what’s best for the talent, production or even corporation. And in this case certainly not what’s best for the network.
I think “there” in the “rest of America,” things like that happen all the time as well. The difference (sometimes) is that in other industries if a CEO or a manager in a company keeps fucking up royally, no one expects them to keep their job. Unfortunately, in Hollywood most higher-ups fail up, and they would gladly watch the company go down with them rather than face the reality that 1) they may not actually know what they’re doing in a certain climate, or 2) that they fucked up. It’s not venom to call someone out on the bullshit, and what Zucker is doing to NBC is bullshit.
Don’t you get it, Bob? We, the people who go to the movies and watch tv, are supposed to shut up and not voice our opinions. They know what is best for us. They definitely don’t want to hear from us, they just want our MONEY. I think they are upset because no one is watching/buying their crap anymore.
i currently live in “the rest of america,” and yeah, you DO live like that.
Bob,
You’re right. I don’t care if Leno succeeds at 10 but I’m not rooting for his failure. It does seem that all the “insiders” here always root for failure, predicting it whenever someone takes a chance. When “Basterds” was coming out everyone was rooting for it to bomb, saying it would. Now, that “Basterds” is doing well – no one says anything. And if Leno comes around, they’ll stay mum too. They only crow when they can ridicule. Pathetic.
Jack, how is calling people “pathetic” not ridicule? It’s called the internet and it has nothing to do with hollywood specifically.
Now go get your shinebox.
If it settles into this range, sure it’s still cost effective for NBC, but don’t they care about their stations? I can’t imagine the bath the local affiliates’ late news could be taking come the start of sweeps.
Interesting. Thanks for the info. I was wondering how the numbers would pan out for Leno. I thought it was poor decision, too. Sorry, Jay.
Why Jay decided to stick with NBC instead of going to ABC is beyond me. This is a vicious business with only the strongest surviving. Jay isn’t strong. He’s weak. May his career RIP.
It’s all about profits.
Period.