NBC revamps primetime schedule

NBC have made quite a surprising move in it's effort to survive the credit crunch, effectively cutting an hour of their weeknight primetime schedule by announcing Jay Leno will move from his current 11.35pm slot to 10pm from Autumn 2009.

Law and Order: SVU and ER are amongst the shows currently in the 10pm slot, but the former will move to 9pm while ER concludes at the end of the season - and the jury is still out on Knightrider and My Own Worst Enemy.

Conan O'Brien will take over the 11.35pm Tonight Show.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/dec/10/jay-leno-tonight-show
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/organgrinder/2008/dec/11/nbc-moves-tonight-show-with-jay-leno


An interesting, though quite risky move. We've seen time and time again that programmes which work well outside of primetime often don't meet expectations in a more competitive prime-time slot, but as pointed out in those articles, this is about cost and revenue, not purely ratings.

Whether it'll have much of a knock on effect it'll have on UK TV I'm not sure - there may be a couple less US dramas about, but in the grand scheme of things that's not going to affect much, while I expect if the show itself airs on UK TV, it'll be in a late post-midnight slot.

I reported about this on my website. I think it's quite a surprising and brave move by NBC to put him on at 10pm. I wonder how long it will stay on 5 nights a week though?

Will be interesting to see what CNBC over here does - three talk shows one after another? (Leno, Conan and Fallon)

Has Carson Daly been given the push?

No, he's on after Fallon.

Isn't Merlin supposed to be getting prime slot on the schedule? 8pm Sunday, last I heard.

Indeed - so it will probably be like this on NBC Monday-Friday;

9pm - Drama/entertainment programme
10pm - The Jay Leno Show
11pm - News?
11.35pm - The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien
12.35am - Late Night With Jimmy Fallon
1.35am - Last Call With Carson Daly

That's a whole lot of talking!

CNBC currently airs The Tonight Show With Jay Leno at 10pm Monday-Friday UK time and 8pm at weekends, with Late Night With Conan O'Brien on after it at 10.45pm.

I would imagine when the changes come in on NBC next year, CNBC will continue to show The Tonight Show and Late Night and not bother with The Jay Leno Show.

It would be nice if someone like Virgin 1 picked up the rights for The Jay Leno Show.

Meh - I'm not so sure.

I've seen a lot of Leno, O'Brian and Letterman in my time and it just doesn't seem to play to a UK audience like it does over there.

Read: not that funny.

I've tried Leno loads of times but just don't get him. Love Letterman, though.

It does seem to me that it will be a bit much on a nightly basis - adding NBC's 3 hours a night with the 2 on CBS (Late Show and the Late Late Show) and an hour on ABC (Jimmy Kimmel), especially seeing as they're all virtually identical in terms of format

Local news yes

Essentially this is the compromise created by Leno promising to quit the Tonight Show but then refusing too, nearly causing a rerun of the fracus that happened when Johnny Carson quit. Otherwise O'Brien might have done what Letterman did all those years ago - go elsewhere and prosper.

I strongly advise you try Craig Ferguson.

I've known Craig for a very long time - since he was known as "Bing Hitler".

He is the exception that proves the rule - the fact that he's Scottish goes a long way to explaining why his comedy taste suits my palette.