Leno moves nightly to primetime (1 Viewer)

[Jason Seaver]

One thing I'm sort of idly wondering is whether Fox is looking at this and considering asking their affiliates how attached they are to their 10pm newscasts. I suspect ABC and CBS can expect a bump in their 10pm shows' numbers as folks not particularly interested in this variety of talk show go elsewhere, but is the void that NBC is creating large enough to be an opportunity for Fox?

It could also work the other way around: Mark Evanier posited on his blog that local stations may opt to move their newscast up an hour, especially on the coasts, and then run Leno's new show at 10:35. I wonder if NBC would allow/discourage that.

(Another idle thought: rather than just concentrating on Sunday and Friday, depending on the time of year, USA programs the 10pm hour with original programming, maybe including NBC refugees like Law & Order, and advertises it on NBC)

 

[todd s]

As long as Chuck is safe. I will be happy.

 

[Brandon Conway]

I know Conan was very gracious on his show last night, but he's got to be wondering the following:

1. How will he get guests? Now he'll be in LA with Leno. Instead of getting all the guests that Leno would be "handing over" by leaving The Tonight Show, those guests will still be going to Leno. Conan's Tonight Show will be relegated to second banana.

2. Can he truly be happy with having to move to LA in order to still play second fiddle?

Hopefully he looks at this as a long term win. I mean, Leno's show may not be around all that long and these issues will fall by the side. But Conan has to know that the potential for his first few years in LA at The Tonight Show have been seriously undermined.

 

[NeilO]

There is also Medium which has done well for them coming in at mid-season.

I don't like this situation. Here is a guess.

The NBC lineup - Mondays - Chuck/Heroes; Tuesdays - Losers; Wednesday - Law and Order shows?; Thursdays - comedies; Fridays - Deal and Dateline. Sunday - NFL/Dateline & Apprecentice (?). I guess if Kings does well and Medium continues to do well then maybe those will go on Wednesday.

 

[MatthewA]

There was also no cable competition to speak of back then. The networks have trouble attracting decent talent because of constant creative interference. This is nothing new, but the fact that there is now an alternative for writers who don't want to deal with network suits means you don't really have to take it anymore. This is why they can't get successful scripted shows.

I can definitely see a scenario where Leno at 10 cannibalizes the Tonight Show w/Conan O'Brien, helping CBS and ABC tremendously.

Why don't they try giving Jay something on Saturday, which has been moribund since the end of The Golden Girls in 1992?

Can anyone name one thing Jeff Zucker has done that has benefitted the network? Even the abysmal late 1970s period gave the network a few hits.

 

[mattCR]

The other one who gets a big help is Letterman. He'll have a better (entertainment) leadin. And, being in NY, he will have a different set of guest options then Leno/Conan.

Really, I could see Fox moving some of it's secondary programming to the 10PM slot.. Fox is in a unique situation.. it has TONS of programming that it could move around and fill those blocks. If nothing else, Fox could program in those blocks with carry over programming.. ie, sure, "Fringe" runs in the fall or "Dollhouse" in the spring; but run the previous season in the 9PM slot or whatever.. I think you'll see more networks look at that. NBC is doing that now by running L&O SVU two nights a week and a block on Saturday.

 

[Jason Seaver]

One thing I would hope NBC does is find a way to make The Jay Leno Show (or whatever it winds up being called) something very distinct from the other late night talk shows. Make it more performance-based, with musicians and comedians doing longer sets (15-20 uninterrupted minutes doing whatever they want within a TV-14 rating), or send Jay out to spend the hour at some interesting location (instead of having Jason Lee on to promote My Name is Earl, head to the set; go to the San Diego Zoo rather than have someone come there). Make it something other than just Jay at a desk, because (a) I don't know how well that will translate to prime time and (b) there just may not be enough of that for five hours a night, three on NBC.

 

[Mikel_Cooperman]

Bad idea on NBC's part but when have they been any good at making decsions the last few years???!!! They program Deal or No Deal more than one night, they cancel Journeyman and they didnt give a crap about Scrubs so they let that go.
I don't know anyone who appreciates Leno's humor. They would rather watch, myself included, Jon Stewart or Steven Colbert or Conan or Letterman.
I think Leno's humor is good for the masses who love reality shows and game shows.
My prediction is that it will be big at first but not that many people will watch after the first month.

 

[3DayFall]

if they had more shows like 30 rock they wouldn't be in this problem. i'd watch a comedy at 10

 

[Chris Lockwood]

1. How does he get guests now, and how would it be any harder in LA? Aren't there more celebrities in LA? It would have been second banana anyways up against Letterman. See the ratings.

2. Who cares? If he can't be happy inheriting the Tonight Show and making tens of millions of dollars, he doesn't deserve to be happy.


It's funny how nobody knows anyone who watches Leno, yet Leno has been #1 pretty much the whole time he's been on. Somebody is watching.

My preference would be to leave the schedule as it is. Second choice, Jay on Fox at 11 or ABC at 11:35 doing similar show to now. But I'm not unhappy with this news.

 

[teapot2001]

I watch Leno and Conan, so I'm happy for both of them. If Leno keeps the same talk show style, then I could see it hurting Conan's potential audience because they will probably have the same guests. Ellen and Leno already share a lot of the same guests each day.

Then again, there was always doubt whether Conan would appeal to Leno's audience. So if anything, Conan's fans will get to see him at an earlier time, and Leno's fans will get to see him at an earlier time.

~T

 

[RyanAn]

I'm excited for this. I DVR all the late night shows and genuinely enjoy Leno. I can't wait. Have they said whether or not the bands (Max for Conan or Kevin on the Tonight Show) will go with the new shows?

 

[Brandon Conway]

1. Guest expectations for 11:30 are much different than for 12:30. And if the A list are going on Leno's show, Conan is once again stuck with the B List. While the B List in LA is probably stronger than the B List in New York, it's still the B List.

2. While it's likely Letterman will beat Conan in the ratings, Letterman is 25 years older. I think Conan knew that going in Letterman wouldn't be his competitor forever.

3. It's hard to compare ratings for an 11:30 show (Letterman) and a 12:30 show (Conan).

 

[Greg_S_H]

I'm far from an expert, but I'm guessing this'll be a mistake. I'm not sure this is the kind of show a prime time audience wants to watch. I wouldn't be surprised if it's another Rosie Live.

 

[mattCR]

I dislike Leno, but I'm sure this won't be a Rosie! Live or Coprock kind of moment. I do wonder if it could fall into a "The New Muppet Show" wing though

 

[Ralphie_B]

It could even be as successful as the Chevy Chase show was!

 

[RickyCrawley]

I have finally given up on NBC for good- Its now official that I do not watch anything on the network. Lets start with Knight Rider- couldn't get past the first episode. All car no story-My own worst enemy- watched a couple of episodes-another badly written show-Heroes-so much negative things have been written and boy they were right!- Chuck- I didn't mind the main story but the back story was a bunch of idiots- couldn't watch anymore- Law and Order- 19 years of the same recycled plots, lets put this one out its misery. Putting Leno on prime time makes it easy- Ive never watched Leno and don't plan to watch him on prime time. As far as it goes NBC no longer exits

 

[Ray Chuang]

In fact, I'm spending WAY more time watching stuff on the cable channels nowadays. I watch a lot of ESPN, ESPN2, Discovery Channel, History Channel, CNN, Fox News Channel, and Turner Classic Movies (TCM).

 

[Joseph Bolus]

So ... You're skipping tonights' Giants/Dallas game, then?

 

[Chris Lockwood]

You guys make it sound like there are only 4 or 5 guests worth having. Geez, a typical show only has 2-3 guests per night.

I still can't see how Conan in LA would have any more trouble in this area than Conan in NY.