The Jay Leno Show -- Premieres 9/14/09 -- 5 nights a week/46 weeks a year

[Deftones]

Looks like the hype didn't last long. Dropped almost 50% to 10.2 million last night.

[MrE]

From WSJ: "Advertisers are buying spots for about half what they'd spend per commercial in new episodes of dramas on competing networks at the same time of night, Madison Avenue executives say. NBC says the Leno show can turn a profit at those reduced levels because it is cheap to produce."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125262696948501475.html

[mphtrilogy]

Originally Posted by Deftones

Looks like the hype didn't last long. Dropped almost 50% to 10.2 million last night.

And this is with a decent lead in Of Biggest Loser...

Jay will get crushed in the fall.

[outcastja]

Any word on Conan's numbers?

[bigjim25]

Originally Posted by nightwing82

I prefer Leno over Conan. Fallon is just unwatchable.

I agree.

[Rypro 525]

Tonight Leno has Robin Williams (drinking game anyone?) and Miley Cyrus (overhyped fake whore)

[movieking]

Norton was good, but that Tom Cruise/Cameron Diaz piece was just horrible. It was actually awkward to watch.

And I thought that Leno's Headline came before Letterman's Small Town News? I didn't watch either religiously, so I wouldn't know for sure.

[calhoun07]

Originally Posted by jeffkjoe

ALL it is, is just The Tonight Show 90 minutes earlier. There's just your 11:00 news sandwiched between Jay and Conan now.

This.

I don't get why people are so shocked that he would just transplant what he did from the Tonight Show to prime time. If people didn't like him on the Tonight Show, did they really think he was going to be doing something different? Conan took what he did on Late Night and transplanted it to the Tonight Show. Letterman took what he did on Late Night and transplanted it to CBS. There are no new surprises when it comes to these shows.

If you liked Leno's Tonight Show, the Jay Leno show will replace the void just fine. If you didn't like it, you best not tune in.

As far as the comment about not liking the name "The Primetime Band..." I read that Leno wanted to call the show Weeknights, so it could just be another brand on NBC like Today and the Tonight Show and Late Night. It's like they were toying with the idea (Couldn't call it Prime Time, though...that was taken by ABC if I recall right) and failed to come up with a better name for the band. I don't see where it matters that much, though.

[mcnabb]

I have to say I kinda wish they put all these shows on at 10PM, instead of 'late night', simply because I don't last past 11:30 anymore.

Now many will say because of DVR/TIVO, it doesn't really matter, but I have had DVR for many years, and I just don't really like watching the late night shows the day after, I enjoy watching them live.

I have watched Leno all week, and yes it is a simple rehash of his Tonight Show, but I am really liking the 10PM timeslot, because there is always nothing on that time of night. Usually shows that I watch every night like Seinfeld, King of Queens, and other reruns don't start till 11PM.

[calhoun07]

Originally Posted by mcnabb

I have to say I kinda wish they put all these shows on at 10PM, instead of 'late night', simply because I don't last past 11:30 anymore.

Maybe if the format takes off, you never know... I doubt Conan or Letterman would give up their slots to go up against Leno in prime time, but it would be interesting to see how the other networks respond if this really catches on.

[GizmoDVD]

Jay should really do 35 mins of Headlines with the remaining 10 or so minutes of the show be about guests.

[wmansir]

Originally Posted by outcastja

Any word on Conan's numbers?

Not good. Letterman has been beating him in overall numbers for the last 10 weeks, basically since a week or two after his premiere. Nightline also beats him fairly regularly. NBC's spin is that Conan has remained #1 in the 18-49 demo.

[Giantrobo]

Originally Posted by wmansir

Not good. Letterman has been beating him in overall numbers for the last 10 weeks, basically since a week or two after his premiere. Nightline also beats him fairly regularly. NBC's spin is that Conan has remained #1 in the 18-49 demo.

Spin? Isn't that pretty much the only Demo that really matters?

[Darknite39]

The best part of yesterday's show may have been Conando.

[SonOfAStu]

The DL Hughley segment tonight was amazing. And the lyrics to the song that Bruce Hornsby sang were borderline insanely ridiculous. Space is the place?

[Count Dooku]

Originally Posted by movieking

And I thought that Leno's Headline came before Letterman's Small Town News? I didn't watch either religiously, so I wouldn't know for sure.

Letterman was doing the bits Small Town News and Dumb Ads in the 80s.

Leno's Headlines is just both of those put together.

[Quake1028]

Well seeing as last night it was beaten by a repeat of The Mentalist, this doesn't bode well for when it faces real competition.

10 p.m.

CBS: "The Mentalist" rerun (8.7 million, 6.0/11)
NBC: "The Jay Leno Show" (8.5 million, 5.5/10)
ABC: "Private Practice" rerun (3.4 million, 2.5/4)

18-49 leader: "The Jay Leno Show" (2.7)

[spamurai]

Tuesday/Wednesday/Friday should be good nights ratings-wise. (Unless there's a show from CBS I'm missing)

Monday/Thursday will be killer. (CSI/Mentalist)

Either way, NBC will be happy in the end because it's cheap to produce and gets higher ratings than the shows that were usually on.

edit - NBC: "The Office" season premiere (8.1 million, 4.8/8)/"Community" series premiere (7.7 million, 4.6/8)

It improved upon the Office premiere so I guess all's not lost?

[calhoun07]

Originally Posted by Count Dooku

Letterman was doing the bits Small Town News and Dumb Ads in the 80s.

Leno's Headlines is just both of those put together.

Leno used to do segments of something similar to "Headlines" back in the day when he was just a stand up comic making the rounds, including on his appearances on the NBC Late Night with David Letterman. In the 80s.

And I would dare say Leno's take on it is a helluva lot more funny that Letterman's.

[FRwL]

Speaking of Letterman, i turned on his show a few days ago to see how he is, he just says a random word and the audience laughs and he stands there smiling for a good 2 minutes until it dies down. What the heck is this shit?

[Giantrobo]

Originally Posted by FRwL

Speaking of Letterman, i turned on his show a few days ago to see how he is, he just says a random word and the audience laughs and he stands there smiling for a good 2 minutes until it dies down. What the heck is this shit?

I've always thought they were 'inside jokes" between him and the audience based on pre-show stuff he does with them.

But I could be wrong.

[wmansir]

Originally Posted by Giantrobo

Spin? Isn't that pretty much the only Demo that really matters?

That's true, but Leno routinely killed Dave and Nightline in both the demo and total viewers and Conan's demo lead has been narrowing week to week.

Here's the latest for Conan. And a year ago for Leno, I moved ahead a week on the year because the previous weeks included conventions or Olympic coverage. Also note that Letterman had candidate Obama on that week, so his numbers are bumped a little.

Year to year, Letterman and Nightline have stayed about the same but Conan has lost 40% of Leno's total viewers and 20% of his demo. Also note that Fallon is down almost 25% in total viewers compared to Conan a year ago.

[mcnabb]

I like Leno's new show, but he's got to stop the 10 at 10 by satellite, because it comes off very awkward. Half of the time it seems like the guest misses any jokes/comments he says about their answers because they can't hear him or the audience that well.

[snoogins]

Or you get Mel Gibson who tries to be funny, but misses badly

[BJacks]

I haven't been watching the show, but to anyone who has...

Has a segment aired about a Canadian guy interviewing people on a red carpet? At the Toronto Film Festival earlier in the week I was standing next to a guy with a Jay Leno Show mic flag (dressed all in red with a maple leaf hat and shirt, and a blazer with rhinestones all over it). He kept shouting out painfully unfunny comments to celebrities like George Clooney and Jason Bateman and they'd look at him like he was from Mars.

I can't imagine they got anything usable out of that, but just curious if anything made it to air.