Wow – NBC just announced it’s moving Jay Leno to primetime, five nights a week. He’ll air at 9:00 pm (Central). Conan O’Brien is getting the 10:30 spot, which will still be called the Tonight Show. And Jimmy Fallon is getting the 11:30 spot for Late Night.
No word yet what Leno’s new show will be called.
NBC has been a ratings disaster for the late few years, and this strategy seems to signal complete surrender. “Forget new programming; we suck at it,” is the message here. “We’re not even going to try anymore.”
NBC may have given up on being #1 – but are they crazy, or crazy like a fox? Producing one nightly talk show will be a hell of a lot cheaper than five weekly dramas or news magazine-style shows, no matter how big Leno’s paycheck is. So Leno’s new show won’t need huge ratings to rake in the cash.
So maybe the real message is this: “It’s okay to suck as long as you make a ton of money at it.”
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
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2 comments:
What sucks about this is that Conan is actually funny, whereas I think the last time Leno was funny was sometime in the early 90s. Conan is original, but you can see Leno's punch lines coming from a mile away.
By doing this, they're not even giving Conan a chance to succeed in the late-night slot.
So true! Conan rocks. Jay is really stale and predictable. Although I still like headlines. And jaywalking. But Jay's jokes are lame.
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