Jay Leno bets on retro

Will a return to the old "Tonight Show" format save "The Jay Leno Show" from cancellation?

"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."

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