People who hoped and prayed that The Jay Leno Show would become a big failure had one less reason to go on living this week.
It seems that the show has hit stopped a recent "ratings slide." The last 11 episodes either maintained or improved their adult demographic ratings after a long slide since September.
Even the holidays didn't dampen the show's ratings. The show before Thanksgiving was his most watched since October and was the only show in his timeslot that didn't see a decline in the ratings.
Does this mean Leno will pull himself out of the muck or just sink deeper into the bottomless swamp that is NBC?
The most interesting part of the interview, shown below, is that after all the verbal abuse she took -- including being called the C-word and "whore" -- an innocuous Jay Leno joke about her looks was her "breaking point." The joke can be seen in the story: Jay compares Hundley to Phillips' wife and says "What was he thinking?" He then says, "I realize you can't have steak every day, but please..."
So, there you have it. Jay Leno broke the spirit of someone with his "biting" humor. Heck, I figured his lame jokes would have broken everyone's spirit years ago, but I guess some people can still get hurt by his butter knife jabs.
If you were one of the dozens of people who were watching The Jay Leno show on Monday, you might have been wondering why the "Headlines" segment came right after Jay's monologue instead of right before the local news. Were you stumbling upon a rerun of the old Tonight Show that was airing by mistake? Nope. It seems that, because of the low-and-sinking ratings Leno has been getting at ten, the producers have decided to "shake up" the format ... to make it look like the old Tonight Show.
Of course, changing a pretty moribund format back to a format that's even older isn't exactly a radical shift. But the producers are likely betting that returning to the successful Tonight formula is the way to go.
Here's the problem: people don't have the same ingrained expectations of a 10 PM talk show that they have of an 11:30 show. Instead of tuning into Leno as a reliable way to get them to sleep late at night, they're now tuning to him because nothing's on and their DVRs are empty. There are no expectations on their part.
Good news, everyone! The Jay Leno Show was funny this week. There were some funny guests, genuinely funny comedy correspondent moments, and another Real Housewives quiz show, this time with the ladies from Atlanta.
Jay even managed to get a quick jab in to the bosses at NBC during an archery "Earn Your Plug" with Wanda Sykes. "This is NBC," he said to her. "I'm used to getting shot in the back." I've grown to respect Leno during his 10 o'clock experiment. He's a trouper doing what NBC is paying him to do, but you can tell he thinks the whole situation's about as screwed up as we do.
Even better, there were only two "10 @ 10" segments and no "Green Car Challenge" races, which allowed for more room to bring on Frank Calliendo and Sebastian Maniscalco to do stand-up routines. This is what I was expecting Leno to be doing, showcasing comedy rather than driving around a track trying not to hit Al Gore.
On Monday's episode of The Jay Leno Show, Mariah Carey made quite the entrance, taking a little stumble on her way out to meet the talk show host. I've always wondered how the heck she walks in those super high heels, but since it's all you ever see her wearing, she gets plenty of practice. In this clip from SlashControl, she doesn't blame the heels themselves, but rather a strap that broke backstage. That would be a shoe strap, not the other kind.
And speaking of that, it's a good thing Mariah didn't fall any further than she did, or there would have been some major wardrobe malfunctions going on. With the dangerous combo of high heels and that massive chest, it's a wonder she can stay upright at all. Oh, come on. You know you're thinking the same thing. Nick Cannon is either a very happy guy, or a very tortured guy who puts up with the diva for, uh, his own personal reasons.
Hey, a lot happens in five shows. Let's get right into it!
COMEDY CORRESPONDENTS Arsenio Hall was featured twice this week. His first appearance was in a segment that had potential called "This Is What They Said/This Is What They Meant." I was expecting to see video clips of celebrities, politicians and the like spouting their same bullcrap, and then having Hall tell us what he thinks they really meant. Instead, it was Leno reading quotes, including historically famous ones like Julius Ceasar's "Et tu, Brute!" The gag didn't make sense anymore, and even worse the bits weren't funny.
Luckily, he came back later in the week with an on-site spot at Yankee Stadium, where he interviewed players from both teams and even set up a bet against a Yankees player and Phillies fan Kevin Eubanks involving Snuggies.
Every show has an off-week. Unfortunately, for Jay Leno when he has an off-week, it takes up five hours worth of our time. Almost every guest was less than entertaining, and even most of the comedy bits missed this week. Luckily, there were some redeeming moments throughout, most of which I've included right here for you. See, I just saved you five hours of time.
With Rachel Griffiths appearing this week, it appears that ABC's ban on their actors appearing on Leno's show may have finally been lifted. Unfortunately, she couldn't bring along a clip of Brothers & Sisters, so I guess they're still feeling a little sour. Or NBC doesn't want to promote a competing network's show too much.
Week two of the revival of TV Squad's APB podcast has arrived! In this episode, Bob Sassone and Danny Gallagher join me to talk about TV's doings this week:
The cancellation of Southland and the role of The Jay Leno Show in that cancellation,
Welcome to the inaugural edition of "Leno Weekly." As you may have noticed, there were no daily reviews of The Jay LenoShow this week. We felt that while it was important to cover the show for the first few weeks, the time for daily reviews has passed. NBC had promised that this would be a bold new comedy venture for prime-time network television. It's not.
That's not to say that it doesn't have its value or historical significance. Whether it succeeds or fails, it's still a big deal that NBC abandoned scripted television at 10pm. It's kind of like when ABC threw Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? on fourteen times a week to prop up their broken schedule a decade or so ago.
For those of you still interested in how the experiment is playing out, "Leno Weekly" will be a weekly roundup of the highlights and lowlights of Leno's primetime show, including clips. For those who don't think The Jay Leno Show deserves any kind of coverage at all on TV Squad ... now you only have one article a week to ignore!
The funniest thing about the season so far is that, after all the attention NBC's move to put Jay Leno at 10 PM generated through the spring and summer, The Jay Leno Show itself has been getting very little in the way of audience or viral buzz.
But those among you who are rooting for this experiment to fail, it's not time to break out the Champagne just yet. Although Leno's ratings are low and continue to sink, NBC isn't pulling the plug anytime soon. And the reason why is the most intriguing part of this whole experiment.
I had a really hard time finding an image to include with this article. I went through every newspaper article that had "The Jay Leno Show" in the body of its text. I did searches on Google Images until Google got sick of me clogging their bandwidth. Even my editor Jane Boursaw couldn't use her super press connection powers to find one stinking shot of Jay blowing his nose in between sets from Friday's show.
Perhaps that's because Friday's late night appetizer on NBC wasn't really all that eventful. Don't take that to mean that it was totally dull, drab or boring, just a typical show for Jay and company.
And given some of the past episodes that sucked out loud, there's nothing wrong with being typical. Compared to the Pee Wee Herman debacle, it's a Devil's Tower sized step up.
We've seen comments the past few days regarding the fact that we're reviewing this show daily so I thought I should go ahead and address this at the top. We're continually evaluating our coverage of this show, but for the rest of this week at least, these will be daily reviews. Regardless of how we or you feel about it, the very existence of The Jay Leno Show is a groundbreaking chapter in television history.
As such, we'd be remiss to not acknowledge it and cover it upon its premiere. It is a primetime major network show that has completely shaken up the television landscape this season, after all. As for how we'll continue covering it, we have considered weekly roundups or even sporadic reports. And we do listen to you, our readers, as to what you want to read.
Tonight, Jay brought us Steve Carell, "Celebrity Pets," and the "Jackass of the Month." If you think about that last one, I'm sure you can figure out who it was.
The Jay Leno Show has taken a bit of a beating from viewers and critics, but my household has been watching, and we like the show. Sure, there are parts of it that fall a little flat (like, ok, The Real Housewives of Orange County bit last night; Jason didn't like it either), but overall, Jay's pretty funny no matter what he's doing, and we enjoy the show.
One of the bits we like is 10@10, the part where Jay gets celebrities on his screen and asks them ten questions about anything. In last night's episode, he caught up with Billy Crystal, currently in Philadelphia touring with his show, 700 Sundays.
I'll give Leno credit for getting creative in the ways he's starting to incorporate celebrities into bits and segments. It fills time for him and gives them their plug opportunities. Tonight, he trotted out three of The Real Housewives of Orange County for a "Battle of the Jaywalk All-Stars Challenge." And ... wow.
I don't watch The Real Houswives of anywhere, but if this is the intellectual capacity of their "stars," then I'm glad I don't. I couldn't tell if they were putting on an act or if they were being themselves. Either way, it was obnoxious and I wanted to reach through the screen and strangle each of them. The blondes were enforcing stereotypes left and right!
If it was all an act, then that's even more unfortunate, because it means they're playing characters rather than being themselves. What? A reality show that's less than real? It was funny that their first reaction to seeing a picture of Nancy Pelosi was that she needed botox. And of course, they had no idea who she was, or anyone else.
The Jay Leno Show has only been on for a week, but it's already starting to fall into a familiar pattern, and that's a good thing for late night. Familiarity creates a steady audience by making it more comforting, and helps weed out what doesn't work and focus on what does.
Unfortunately, the thing that makes the late night format work is breaking Jay's show.
Just about the only thing that works with Jay's show is his monologue. The rest make him feel more out of his element than Donnie from The Big Lebowski.
People who hoped and prayed that The Jay Leno Show would become a big failure had one less reason to go on living this week. 
If you were one of the dozens of people who were watching The Jay Leno show on Monday, you might have been wondering why the "Headlines" segment came right after Jay's monologue instead of right before the local news. Were you stumbling upon a rerun of the old Tonight Show that was airing by mistake? Nope. It seems that, because of the low-and-sinking ratings Leno has been getting at ten, the producers have decided to "shake up" the format ... to make it look like the old Tonight Show.
Good news, everyone! The Jay Leno Show was funny this week. There were some funny guests, genuinely funny comedy correspondent moments, and another Real Housewives quiz show, this time with the ladies from Atlanta.
Hey, a lot happens in five shows. Let's get right into it!
Every show has an off-week. Unfortunately, for Jay Leno when he has an off-week, it takes up five hours worth of our time. Almost every guest was less than entertaining, and even most of the comedy bits missed this week. Luckily, there were some redeeming moments throughout, most of which I've included right here for you. See, I just saved you five hours of time.
Week two of the revival of TV Squad's APB podcast has arrived! In this episode, Bob Sassone and Danny Gallagher join me to talk about TV's doings this week:
Welcome to the inaugural edition of "Leno Weekly." As you may have noticed, there were no daily reviews of The Jay Leno Show this week. We felt that while it was important to cover the show for the first few weeks, the time for daily reviews has passed. NBC had promised that this would be a bold new comedy venture for prime-time network television. It's not.
We've seen comments the past few days regarding the fact that we're reviewing this show daily so I thought I should go ahead and address this at the top. We're continually evaluating our coverage of this show, but for the rest of this week at least, these will be daily reviews. Regardless of how we or you feel about it, the very existence of The Jay Leno Show is a groundbreaking chapter in television history.
I'll give Leno credit for getting creative in the ways he's starting to incorporate celebrities into bits and segments. It fills time for him and gives them their plug opportunities. Tonight, he trotted out three of The Real Housewives of Orange County for a "Battle of the Jaywalk All-Stars Challenge." And ... wow.
Gone Too Soon: Invasion
Scrubs season nine -- An early look
The TV Squad Podcast: Vik Sahay of Chuck, Oprah talk, brutal timeslots, and more!
