Jay Leno bets on retro
Will a return to the old "Tonight Show" format save "The Jay Leno Show" from cancellation?
Jay Leno with his 1955 Buick: Is he looking backward for success?
(Boyd Jaynes/Transtock/Corbis)
"The Jay Leno Show" has struggled to attract viewers in its first few months, causing NBC to rethink its nighttime television experiment. To bring back the old Jay Leno magic, and his old ratings, the show is reintroducing some elements from Leno’s "Tonight Show" days. Is the old structure and look enough to save Leno’s new show? (Watch Jay Leno interview "Twilight"'s Taylor Lautner sans his desk)
The problem isn't the format, it's the time slot: Jay Leno's appeal and success were once tied into people falling asleep to his show, says Joel Keller at TV Squad, but at 10 p.m. viewers "don't have the same ingrained expectations" as when Leno aired at 11:30 p.m. Leno's trying to find an audience earlier in the night, but viewers "are looking for something interesting at 10."
"Leno show makes 'radical' format change; looks more like old Tonight Show"
Never bet on the conventional wisdom: NBC pushed Leno's best segments to the end of "The Jay Leno Show" because of an "insane belief that people would stay around for them," says Richard Rushfield at Gawker. Still, while you'd have to be "certifiable to bet on Leno and NBC at this dark hour," the “flood of bad press” might actually sweeten the odds a bit—“no one ever lost a buck betting against the wisdom of the press.”
"The beginning of the end of the Jay Leno experiment"
Leno’s not going anywhere anytime soon: NBC’s diagnosis of the “Leno Show” problem—“It’s too innovative!”—is unconvincing, says James Poniewozik in Time, but Leno’s job is safe. He’s “cheap” programming, and the odds of “very powerful people at NBC publicly second-guessing themselves” about Leno’s show are slim to none. If anything, Leno will move to 11, pushing Conan O’Brien to midnight—or NBC “could further screw over Conan” by giving Leno back “The Tonight Show.”
“Leno Show removing last vestiges of not-Tonight-Show-ness”
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10 Comments
Posted by Stella, Tuesday, November 17, 2009, 4:58 am People watched Leno out of habit I think. Now that Leno is at 10 people dont watch because Leno is not funny beside people are not ready to fall asleep at 10.
Posted by pohknee, Tuesday, November 17, 2009, 11:11 am I didn't really notice a format change when Jay moved to 9:00PM. Looked like the same band that was on the tonight show too. If there is a move in time slot coming, I see nothing but for Conan.
Posted by Gut Shot, Tuesday, November 17, 2009, 2:57 pm I watched Jay for a few shows and found them to be tasteless and not funny. I quickly changed the channel. The tonight show had a winning formula. But, NBC gave it to that lame ass Conan. I had been a viewer for 50 years. Since Conan took over I haven not bothered to watch. Please Jay go back to what works. If it ain't broke don't fix it until it is.
Posted by Don, Tuesday, November 17, 2009, 6:44 pm Jay is not funny. The 'stars' he has on the show are boring. The jokes are old and lame. Changing the format, which seems to be the same to us, won't make Jay or his guests any more enchanting. BORING.
Posted by Linda, Tuesday, November 17, 2009, 6:45 pm It IS the same show. Change to from what, to what??
Posted by Lucas, Tuesday, November 17, 2009, 8:25 pm I say Conan keeps The Tonight Show in its proper slot, but brings it back to NYC.As for the Jay Leno Show, from day one I felt the new format was horrible, and needed to be changed back. I watched the second show and got tired of waiting for the segments that I really liked until the end of the show. Past that, I stopped watching.
Posted by Johnny Reb, Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 2:13 pm Leno isn't really doing all the badly at 10PM, he just looked better at 11:30 because there weren't as many options. Statistically, he's probably doing as well now as he did then. That being said, you can bet NBC keeps him where he is. As they say, it's cheaper than traditional programming. Come summer when even fewer tv options are available he'll be original programming every night and one more place for the studios to book their big stars to promote their summer big movie blockbusters.
Posted by Blackdog, Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 2:29 pm NBC totally screwed up when they moved Leno out of the Tonight Show. First, he's the funniest guy on TV. Second, Conan is dead. If there's any humor in his body, I can't find it nor a pulse. Third, they messed with a winning format on Jay's new show. Toss Conan out the door and put Leno back where he belongs in the old format.
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