TVSquad

It's wild to recall that NBC was once so good that it canceled The Single Guy and Boston Common despite both being Top 10 Nielsen shows.

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I think that it would be a huge hit in the first couple of airings and then everyone will be changing the channel to scripted drama. I think that won't last past November sweeps, there will be reruns to fill the void and then back to the 10pm different show every day.

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GE used to be a company that held its employees to strict standards of competency. My how things have changed.

Zucker has presided over the disintegration of the NBC brand. Yet, instead of being fired, he's been constantly PROMOTED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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"The idea from NBC's point of view makes sense financially."


And that's really the only thing that matters.

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Nope. Silverman first. Then they need to replace him with Jack Donaghy. : P

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"Another thought: if you were Conan O'Brien or Jimmy Fallon, would you be happy to hear that every night of the week before you go on the air, Leno is going to be preceding you with similar topical comedy and (perhaps) better guests?"

Doesn't Conan deal with this already?

Personally, I really don't care much about this. ER is in it's final season(just when it found it's legs again!), L&O will always survive. I only hope that this means Standards and Practices can be as loose with Conan when he takes over as he is now.

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I think they are looking at who watches Network TV. Its old people. They don't stay up late (bedtime @10 PM unless something worth watching is on).

Tivo works for the really good stuff but I bet they make a fortune catching all the over 45 crowd, looking for mindless talk show stuff before thier bedtime.

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You know there's no requirement that you watch Jay Leno. And frankly, what else has NBC got to put there? When you consider that the 10pm slot is the lead in to local news, Jay makes perfect sense. He draws an older audience and they might stick around to watch the news. How is Jay worse that another reality program? Will I watch, probably not, but the only thing I watch on NBC is My Name is Earl, anyway. Freeing up that 10p hour will also let NBC Universal spend the money developing dramas for Sci-Fi Channel and USA. As much as nobody wants to hear about money or care about money. TV Networks are a business. Local TV stations are a business.

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This just makes me want to NOT watch NBC...Thank goodness I have tons of choices with cable. If it were 20 years ago it would be very limited. I think this is a huge mistake and Leno won't last in this slot till Thanksgiving. This is nothing more than a money grabbing move by NBC and has nothing to do with what is best for viewers. Hopefully this will put a final nail in Zucker's coffin and he will be off to ruin another network and maybe this time it will be one that I don't like!

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I have no problem with a show hosted by a person like Jay Leno (a late night host) being on at 10, but to have it 5 days a week, as well as the existing block of late night shows just strikes as a way of getting cheap(er) programming at the expense of scripted programming. Late Night talk shows are already pretty much a dime a dozen as it is, adding another will just make the spread of guests even thinner - that is assuming it's a similar type show. I can see it working a couple, maybe even three times a week but everyday seems excessive and will no doubt tire quickly.

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leno is a hack

Hopefully now that Don Geiss is out of his coma he will get things back in order

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I hate it too, but I suspect that it's a smart move by Zucker. NBC, last I checked, was really good at drawing audiences in the morning and late at night, but they have been terrible at prime time... probably since Friends left. They've tried tons of different scripted shows, and presumably lost money with them. So why drag down a successful morning and late night operation with a money-losing prime time operation? The idea to cut costs in prime time with eleventy billion Deal or No Deals a week and Leno at 10 every night... well it just makes sense. It sucks for readers of this site, who actually enjoy scripted programming, but for keeping a network profitable, it's a good idea.

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Really a kick in the face for Conan. Thinking you are going to be the lead go-to guy, only for them to keep Leno on before.

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Here are at least 5 reasons why this is a bad idea, except possibly for GE's budget:

First, don't Leno's viewers skew older? Does NBC want that in their prime-time numbers? Aren't they all about the 18-49 demo?

Second, doesn't this essentially withdraw NBC even further from the scripted entertainment business? They're basically telling viewers looking for that to go elsewhere.

Third, what happens when Leno is in reruns? Just how low can the ratings go?

Fourth, what happens, if after the first few months, Leno's ratings drop below what the old 10pm shows were doing? Is this solely about money? Does the fact that NBC can produce his show for so much less than anything else they could fill the time with outweigh the lower ratings they'll be getting? Aren't they tying their own hands? You can cancel a regular series, or a reality series, in a heartbeat. What do you do with a guy who has a contract?

Fifth, doesn't this mean that the guests will all go to the 10pm slot to promote their stuff? What does that leave Conan with? How happy is he about this deal? It basically keeps him in the second slot, behind Leno. It gives him something called "The Tonight Show", but not the spot as the premier talk show host on the network, getting the big guests. He's still second banana.

GE's bottom line is the only winner here, and I think that's incredibly temporary.

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My main worry is “Life.” If (and I know it’s a big “if”) it survives for another season does it get moved down to 9:00 PM? And do the shows that now air at 9 get moved down to 8 and so on? If so what does that do to the writing of these shows in terms of their “edgy-ness?” Will they have to be “dumb down” and “lighten up” in order to not offend/violate Standards and Practices and the FCC? And excuse me but, didn’t NBC see that the Rosie O’Donnell primetime variety thing didn’t work? It wasn’t just because it was Rosie that it didn’t work. People just don’t want to watch that sort of TV at that time.

I really don’t like this idea of Leno at 10 at all. NBC blinked big time. They knew the second Leno “left the building” ABC was going to be all over him with a deal. No, he’s not that funny or great interviewer but for some reason that is beyond me he draws an audience.

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I agree with this post completely. There are so many stupid things NBC is doing lately, it's easy to name them off the top of my head. 1) Conan is a bad fit for the Tonight Show. 2) Why get rid of Leno only to move him to 10PM 3) What about all the potentially good shows that belong in a 10PM time-slot. 4) Taking off Heroes, Life, and Chuck to make room for new reality crap the entire month of January 5) Too much crappy reality TV 6) Too much reality TV period. 7) If they do anything to screw-up Days of our Lives, which I hear John & Marlena might be getting the axe which is just stupid because they are a power couple and staples of the show.

To quote Dr. Horrible, "the fish rots from the head as they say, so why not cut off the head." NBC is a mess and someone else just needs to rule it.

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What r u guys talking about? Zucker brings three kinds of heat to NBC. With three kinds of heat u can cook a turkey in 22 minutes.

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And you know what? After having read through all the other comments and really good logical points that all of you have made I’m thinking TPTB at NBC had to have thought of all of this. They had to. I think, bottom line, NBC is running scared just like the rest of America right now. They’re desperate to keep revues up no matter what and they're to the point of trying anything to try to make that happen. Sad.

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I wouldn't say this move is stupid. I would say it's cost effective and a** saving for Zucker. From a business standpoint it's a good move. it will save money for sure. The bad news is for us viewers who like good, new , possibly edgy content in the 10-11pm hour. With one less network airing these types of programs it will limit the chances of a good show coming on NBC and it may also limit chances of bubble shows like Chuck from holding on. The network will be quicker to ax a show if they feel they have a strong pilot to a show in the works. The risk is less because they don't have to worry about programming so many hours. The drawback for NBC is can this be a ratings draw for 52 weeks a year? How would it repeat? Would viewers start to fade as they show more interest in scripted dramas on ABC and CBS? Will this hurt the tonight show? Will it be too many talk show hours on one night and one network?

Bottom line is from a business perspective it's a good move but for us viewers it leaves us looking more to cable for that good edgy drama.

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