NBC made the announcement that the network is pulling Jay Leno's prime time show. It's still unclear what the network will do with Jay from here.
Veteran comedian Jay Leno, for years king of late-night television in the United States, is being ousted from his prime-time perch, NBC announced Sunday, conceding that an experiment to air his talk show in an earlier time slot had failed."The Jay Leno Show" as of February 12, no longer will fill the coveted 10 pm (0500 GMT) time slot, NBC said, following complaints from local stations that his low ratings were hurting the popularity of programs that followed his.
"In November, we started hearing from our affiliates that our local news is being impacted more than we expected," NBC Universal Television Entertainment president Jeff Gaspin told a gathering of television critic in Pasadena, outside of Los Angeles.
"At the end of November, they told us it's not really getting much better for us -- in some cases we had a number one newscast, now we're number three," he said.
"Towards the middle of December, they made it clear they would be more vocal about their displeasure. I realized this would not go well if we kept this and I made the tough call," he said.
Leno reportedly has been flirting with other networks, but his plans following the announcement Sunday were not immediately clear.
Conan O'Brien has taken advantage of the rumor-mongering and had a funny clip just the other night.
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Comments (5)
And not a moment too soon.<... (Below threshold)1. Posted by Marc | January 10, 2010 4:44 PM | Score: 5 (5 votes cast)
And not a moment too soon.
Whomever thought Conan was anything but a late, late....very late night comic was, and is a damn fool.
His writers make eulogy writers look funny.
1. Posted by Marc | January 10, 2010 4:44 PM |
Score: 5 (5 votes cast)
Posted on January 10, 2010 16:44
2. Posted by bryanD | January 10, 2010 5:09 PM | Score: -4 (4 votes cast)
conan was decent with that richter guy.
he also wrote at least one good simpsons episode back before the simpsons should have been carted off for euthanasia (before season 11).
leno was decent on hbo.
back in the 1980s, i think.
the whole genre went out the window with cigarette ads on tv, anyway.
except for mila jovavich's repeated topless appearances on letterman. those were pretty good.
2. Posted by bryanD | January 10, 2010 5:09 PM |
Score: -4 (4 votes cast)
Posted on January 10, 2010 17:09
3. Posted by GarandFan | January 10, 2010 5:58 PM | Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
NBC has more problems than placement of Leno's show. Their viewers are dropping because the public is tired of all the water-carrying for Barry and the DNC. Wonder what their next excuse will be.
3. Posted by GarandFan | January 10, 2010 5:58 PM |
Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Posted on January 10, 2010 17:58
4. Posted by Brett Buck | January 10, 2010 7:21 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
That's at least part of it. Leno's lead-ins were awful as well, and the L&O franchise has turned into Daily Kos. I particularly enjoyed the Veteran's day SVU - where an Army recruiter was portrayed as a vulture waiting to entrap people into the terrible fate of defending one's country! FU to the Vets, NBC-Style.
But the fact remains that Leno is a dreadful hack, and such a milquetoast comic that he *couldn't" possibly have matched regular programming. It would have been a very hard row to hoe for a comic genius. Carson couldn't have pulled 10-12 million even in the good old days of the 3 major networks, much less with this many choices. A c-lister like Jay doesn't have a chance. Maybe more "Green Car Challenge"!
4. Posted by Brett Buck | January 10, 2010 7:21 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on January 10, 2010 19:21
5. Posted by Flu-Bird | January 10, 2010 11:41 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
AND NOW HHHHEEEEERRRREEEES JOHNNY
5. Posted by Flu-Bird | January 10, 2010 11:41 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on January 10, 2010 23:41