You gotta love the ol' rumor mill. It sleeps less than Amy Winehouse. Conan O'Brien hasn't even finished his first week as the new host of The Tonight Show and the insiders are already churning out rumblings about Jay Leno's new show.
Some sources close to the network and The Jay Leno Show told Kim Masters of The Daily Beast that Leno is slowly growing unhappy with his new time slot and the changes that are being made to the new show by the network. There are even concerns that the stress of the situation is starting to take a toll on the host's health.
It seems that Leno and his staff are starting to realize the tremendous strain of the position that NBC has placed in their hands. Leno's Tonight Show has been the NBC's only consistent winner and they weren't willing to let him go without a fight. At the same time, they have put all of their eggs in one basket and that basket has been squarely placed on Leno's back.
The network's icy cold hand of changes are started to creep into Leno's studio. Some of the unidentified sources said that Leno will not simply be bringing the old format to his new time slot in primetime. He will have to do more comedy and less celebrity interviews -- which is fine with Leno -- else "Conan's people are going to have a #*$&ing fit." You can fill in the blank with whatever word you wish.
Unfortunately, a format change means some softer comedy material might have to go into the front of the show and that can drive away viewers in droves. Plus, it's going to take twice the amount of work to do daily, topical comedy five nights a week with fewer guests on the roll call. The network has also started pulling some members of Leno's staff to cut costs and Leno has been powerless to do anything about it. Hopefully that television comedy government bailout will land soon and save television land.
Worst of all, the strain and stress of the situation could be taking a huge toll on Leno's physical health. One former network executive told the blog that the host rarely takes care of himself, works constantly and that eventually "it wouldn't be surprising if at some point, that machine has to break." Maybe all these concerns could have been avoided if corporate executives stopped thinking of their employees as "machines." Even robots need a lube job.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
6-02-2009 @ 3:02PM
Jimmy said...
Oh, great! Another Leno post!
Can't we get a break for a day or two?
Reply
6-02-2009 @ 5:04PM
Beanie said...
Jimmy, for someone who replies to every post, I think I know who should be taking a break.
6-02-2009 @ 6:38PM
Michael said...
Freaking HILARIOUS Beanie... touche!!!
6-02-2009 @ 8:44PM
Jimmy said...
Good one, Beanie! You really got me. Your comment is almost funny enough for me to suggest you get a job writing for Leno.
Incidentally, your comment contains a misplaced modifier. If "someone who replies to every post" refers to me and not to you, you should know there have been 22 posts to TV Squad today; I commented on only three of them.
Besides, isn't that the purpose of a blog?
6-03-2009 @ 11:24AM
Rob said...
For cryin' out loud Jimmy,.. can't you just take a friggin' joke?
6-04-2009 @ 9:51AM
Jimmy said...
Yes, Rob. Can't you?
6-06-2009 @ 1:13AM
Tracey said...
Jimmy you're a real douche.
6-02-2009 @ 3:10PM
Sam said...
Actually, he should do fewer interviews and make them longer. I'm thinking Later with Bob Costas style.
Reply
6-02-2009 @ 3:18PM
nffcnnr said...
Perhaps they should just shorten the show altogether...i'm all for less Leno interviews, since all he does is giggle and kiss celebrity as$.
Reply
6-02-2009 @ 3:36PM
am_hollitz said...
Pulling staff to save money? What else is NBC spending money on? They have canned everything else in their line-up to make way for Jay Leno's new show.
Reply
6-02-2009 @ 4:14PM
David said...
This blog post, and the one it refers to, contains a lot of hyperbole without a whole lot of concrete facts or evidence.
Reply
6-02-2009 @ 4:36PM
0megapart!cle said...
Today Show and Meet the Press are other consistent winners in NBC's portfolio.
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6-02-2009 @ 5:15PM
Justin said...
Of course they're finding writing comedy for a weekly show to be difficult considering they've not written anything funny in the last 17 years.
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6-02-2009 @ 5:16PM
John said...
Anything is better than that train wreck, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.
Reply
6-02-2009 @ 5:22PM
Richard Ott said...
Danny, that has only happened once, and if by some
act of god something should happen to Leno again,
may lightning strike down upon your TV Squad.
In other words, his new show will be as great a
ratings success as he was on The Tonight Show.
Amy Winehouse, well, that's another story.
Reply
6-02-2009 @ 10:23PM
Jake said...
I really wish that Leno had gone to ABC and hope that if this is not successful than that he still does go to ABC. Less Celebrity interviews, I thought it was the same show just on earlier and I thought this show was cheaper to produce than a single one long drama -- so what gives?
Reply
6-02-2009 @ 9:24PM
MacGuffin said...
3 1/2 hours of late night talk shows is a bit much. And yes, I am including the dreadful half-hour known as Carson Daly.
My question is how NBC is going to coordinate guests on Jay and Conan. We all the only reason why stars show up to these talk shows is to pitch their latest project (film, show, book, etc.).
Which show should they show up to? 10 PM Primetime Jay or 11:35 Late Night on the vaunted Tonight Show????
Reply
6-02-2009 @ 10:18PM
KevinM said...
Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I've always thought that Leno sucked. I've been counting down the last five years for Conan to take over the slot. NBC would be better off not doing this new Jay Leno Show.
NBC- "We're just stringing ourselves along until the next Olympics"
Reply
6-02-2009 @ 11:45PM
Walt said...
I'll repeat myself in suggesting that it's not going to be a five night a week gig for very long. Friday night will be the first to go, I figure.
NBC could always slip in a mid-season launch for Medium on Friday nights and... what's that? Medium is already on the Friday night lineup? Who's idea was that? CBS? oh... How about that...
Well,
Reply
6-03-2009 @ 10:26AM
Justin said...
A) It's getting boring reading everyone trashing Late Night w/ Jimmy Fallon while worshipping Conan. I love Conan but he was nowhere near as good as Fallon is 3 MONTHS into his hosting career. This really is a country of right here, right now.
B) I'm sure Leno is sweating the fact that Conan pulled a 7.1 in his first night as host as well. I'm sure those numbers won't stay that high but I can imagine The Tonight Show rating better than Leno has these past few years because he was far too populist and Conan now has access to his older audience at an early timeslot. Not to mention there's got to be a fair share of Leno's old audience that like(d) Conan.
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