Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Leno in Primetime?

Not sure how I feel about the news that, starting next fall, Jay Leno will bring some form of his show on the road to the 10-11pm hour from Monday through Friday for NBC. From a ratings perspective, the show is bound to do better than, say, My Own Worst Enemy. But Jay can't come cheap, and while his show may have a pretty stable viewing base after so many years in late night (so we probably won't see the typical second episode slide from a premiere we see with basically every new show)... his show has been on for many, many years. Are new viewers going to flock to it just because it's earlier? Will younger viewers watch it? I don't know. This seems like a desperate attempt to plug up the sinking ship that is NBC... and it may be a lifeboat, but I just don't see it as the savior NBC needs.

Plus we all saw how disastrously stripping 5 hours of primetime with the same show worked for MyNetwork TV in 2006-07. Granted, Jay Leno's show isn't exactly a telenovela...

... the loss of 5 hours of primetime real estate for scripted television depresses me wholeheartedly.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

what does this mean for chuck because i hear nbc is considering cutting back their primetime hours too. i know nbc likes the show but could chuck be in more danger now? i know it was sort of on the bubble for renewal