BDB

Breaking News Alert
The New York Times
Monday, December 8, 2008 -- 7:31 PM ET
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NBC Expected to Give 10 P.M. Show to Leno

The network is expected to announce Tuesday that it has
signed Jay Leno to a new contract that will give him the 10
p.m. time period each weeknight for a show.

gmanca

Zucker just stated that he questioned if they could program 22 hours worth of TV so it looks like this is one "cost-cutting" move that would actually work. Sad part about that is Zucker will get credit and still be around.

Deftones

so this is a half-hour show? probably win/win for Leno. Gets to work less and probably makes the same amount of money.

JohnSlider

Probably just keeping Leno around in case Conan can't get a strong enough rating.

CharlieK

Do you think this will hamstring Conan? Do you think people tune into 'The Tonight Show' these days because its 'The Tonight Show' or because of Leno or because its just what's on after the news?

It doesn't really say what the format will be, but I can't help but think it would be similar to what he does now. I don't see Leno straying too far from a tried and true formula.

JuryDuty

Interesting! I'm surprised though--this'll be nightly, during Prime Time. Has a network ever done that before??

"The daily program with Mr. Leno would effectively cut back the number of hours NBC needed to fill each week from 22 to 17." LOL guess they don't have enough good programming to fill that spot, so why not? It'll probably get decent ratings.

For the lazy: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/09/bu...o.html?_r=1&hp

Timber

Wonder how long it will take him to be canceled from the Monday 10pm time slot?

shaun3000

I think because it's the Tonight Show. NBC is dead last at the moment so it's not like there are lots of people already watching--if that were the case, Letterman would be ahead.

JuryDuty

He may be around a while. Considering his popularity, if they can make a show people enjoy, he could pull in a consistent 5 million a night which, over the week, is a consistent success. (The Tonight Show currently gets about 5.5M viewers nightly.)

I could see them scaling the show back, but then again, what alternative programming do they have? Pretty much nothing, and other than the cost of the host, this will probably be a very cheap show to produce. If he sticks with Tonight Show fare, it'll be Headlines, Man on the Street stuff, guest interviews, music, etc.

DJariya

I just read that Leno is expected to get $40-50M a year for this show...

chris_sc77

I think this is a great move on NBC's part. Cool to have Leno still around even though I dont watch him much,

DJariya

I guess this means NBC is throwing in the towel on scripted programs at 10pm.

I guess paying Leno $40-50M a year to talk is much better than investing over $100M a year on scripted shows that get low ratings, which has been NBC's problem the last several years.

CharlieK

You don't think they're expecting him to do better than 5 million? That's pretty low for a 10p weeknight slot, I think. That being said, I'd be curious to know what the rating estimate for this show is. What are they expecting he'll pull in, I wonder.

TGM

GREAT!

at least I won't have to burden my already taxed tivo with programming from NBC at that hour.

Spicollidriver1

Considering the cost of this show compared to the alternatives they would be fine with lower ratings and if they pulled almost the same rating throughout the week that would be a win on some days. All that said I don't really care that this is happening, and probably won't watch much but don't watch him much now.

Gizmo

Wow...amazing if true.

What shows does NBC currently have at the 10pm hour? What shows would they need to...cancel to make this happen? I know MOWE is gone, but what about that show Kings?

CharlieK

$50 million a year for Jay, plus production costs for a high profile, some might say unprecedented, show like this and you don't think they want more than 5 million viewers a night? They're keeping Jay in-house because he makes them a lot of money. If NBC didn't think he'd boost 10p ratings, they'd put him somewhere else or let him go.

CharlieK

Then again, 5 million may actually be a boost for NBC @ 10p.

wmansir

It looks like NBC hoping to solve one problem they made, failing to develop good shows, with another problem they created, booting Leno when he was obviously willing to go work for the competition. I don't see this working out, but at least Leno will get a nice bag of cash.

@GizmoDVD
Re: The current 10PM lineup

Monday's free after Enemy's cancellation. Reality show "Mommas' Boys" is there now.
Tuesday and Wednesday are Law & Order, SVU and original. I don't know about SVU, but original L&O has been on shaky ground for a while.
Thursday is ER, which is ending in March.
Friday is Dateline.

Gizmo

It's feasible then...Just worries me that NBC may cancel shows (FNL, Chuck) to fit in L&O or Dateline instead.

JuryDuty

Well, I was just throwing that number out since it's close to his Tonight Show ratings. But as another poster said above, if he averages 5M nightly, I'm betting that will be better than what they'd be getting once their current shows end over the week.

Jimmy James

I think this gives the Tonight Show demo reason to go to sleep around 10:30-11, effectively screwing the locals and Conan. No sir, I don't like it. I thought NBC would settle on giving Leno a bunch of prime time, but I figured he'd end up with 2-3 hours every Friday or something like that.

I wonder if the two L&O shows will make the cut for 9 PM. I'm guessing yes, at least for SVU.

CharlieK

Oh, I understand and it makes sense. NBC averages about 7 million @ 10p, I think. And that's probably with a few duds like 'Enemy' pulling the average down. So I was just thinking that with that much money and this high profile a gig, they may be expecting more.

Deftones

actually, L&O's ratings have been on an upswing after the recent cast changes. Quality has been better, too.

Double_Oh_7

And he probably won't touch it. He lives off of stand-up money and (he says) has never touched a penny of his Tonight Show money. He has to have one serious nest egg.