by Troy Gustafson
NBC Universal TV Entertainment chairman Jeff Gaspin confirmed Sunday that Jay Leno is out of his new 10:00 time slot bringing unknown changes to an already crowded late night line up. Although NBC plans to keep Leno within the fold, his time slot will change.
Leno's new 10:00 clock show came out of NBC's long planned move of Conan O'Brien to the coveted Tonight Show desk. Leno's show is not doing badly for the network, in fact it has been doing well enough for NBC to keep it going for the proposed 52 month trial period promised to Leno. The problem is NBC affiliates are suffering ratings setbacks, more specifically in local news. Where affiliate news shows were once getting excellent ratings, they are now getting lower marks.
NBC has asked Leno to move to 11:35 p.m. to a half-hour show as opposed to the current full hour. Conan O'Brien's hourlong "Tonight Show" will follow and Jimmy Fallon's one-hour "Late Night" will bring up the rear in the 1 am time slot. Doesn't that make Jimmy Fallon more of a "Today Show"?
Leno is expected to agree to the move, but Conan O'Brien's future with the network is not fully known. It has been speculated that Conan may choose to walk away completely with a contract payoff. Regardless, Gaspin expects the network to have a new schedule in place before next month.
Gaspin confirmed the pickup of several pilots which included the network developing a Los Angeles-based "Law & Order," because there's not enough of those. He also said that Howie Mandel would take over for David Hasselhoff as a judge on "America's Got Talent."
I have to question the original move that prompted this current situation. Several years ago, I remember NBC announcing the replacement of Leno with O'Brien. Although I have always liked both of these hosts, why pre-plan a replacement of a successful host? Was it a preemptive attempt to cover if Leno left when his contract expired?
I understand keeping someone in the wings as they did with Jonny Carson, but in that case they waited until Carson retired. In this case they put a date on the replacement. Doesn't anyone find that weird? At the time Conan stepped in Jay was still happy to be host and NBC had to find somewhere to put him, like an unexpected relative showing up with a suitcase. I submit that this is a mess that could have been avoided and now Leno and O'Brien are going to pay for it when they were doing just fine.
