Jay Leno moving back to the Tonight Show?

[Sylph]

Nina T.:

[bellcurve]

Bitch is dumb as hell!

She chooses to put a REALITY show in the post-Superbowl slot? Instead of one of her scripted series, like The Mentalist, which could use that kind of post-Super Bowl boost?

She better be confident she has another Survivor on her hands. Otherwise, it's gonna look so stupid.

[alphanguy74]

Mark, the game changer here is local news and emergency information. I don't think the public would stand for nothing but cable channels with no local newscast, no local weathercast, and what about local emergency broadcasts?

[JaneAusten]

Well you can get that to some extent on cable also. Here in the Chicago area we have CLTV which is cable and all local and all local news and stores for the most part. Not saying it's ideal or that a cable station like this could be sustained in smaller media markets.

[Sylph]

From Variety:

[JaneAusten]

Conan gets some jabs in finally, Leno a bit and now we have Letterman chiming in.

I happen to agree with Leno. This is the most PR NBC has gotten in months. It's own soap opera. It seems to have caused a bit of an upswing for Conan viewers. I'm actually surprised Leno's numbers haven't risen a tad also.

http://tvbythenumbers.com/2010/01/12/video-conan-not-going-down-without-a-fight/38484

[JaneAusten]

O'Brien issues a statement

http://tvbythenumbers.com/2010/01/12/conan-on-conan-at-1205a-do-not-want/38604

People of Earth:

In the last few days, I’ve been getting a lot of sympathy calls, and I

want to start by making it clear that no one should waste a second

feeling sorry for me. For 17 years, I’ve been getting paid to do what I

love most and, in a world with real problems, I’ve been absurdly lucky.

That said, I’ve been suddenly put in a very public predicament and my

bosses are demanding an immediate decision.

Six years ago, I signed a contract with NBC to take over The Tonight

Show in June of 2009. Like a lot of us, I grew up watching Johnny Carson

every night and the chance to one day sit in that chair has meant

everything to me. I worked long and hard to get that opportunity, passed

up far more lucrative offers, and since 2004 I have spent literally

hundreds of hours thinking of ways to extend the franchise long into the

future. It was my mistaken belief that, like my predecessor, I would

have the benefit of some time and, just as important, some degree of

ratings support from the prime-time schedule. Building a lasting

audience at 11:30 is impossible without both.

But sadly, we were never given that chance. After only seven months,

with my Tonight Show in its infancy, NBC has decided to react to their

terrible difficulties in prime-time by making a change in their

long-established late night schedule.

Last Thursday, NBC executives told me they intended to move the Tonight

Show to 12:05 to accommodate the Jay Leno Show at 11:35. For 60 years

the Tonight Show has aired immediately following the late local news. I

sincerely believe that delaying the Tonight Show into the next day to

accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider

to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting. The Tonight

Show at 12:05 simply isn’t the Tonight Show. Also, if I accept this move

I will be knocking the Late Night show, which I inherited from David

Letterman and passed on to Jimmy Fallon, out of its long-held time slot.

That would hurt the other NBC franchise that I love, and it would be

unfair to Jimmy.

So it has come to this: I cannot express in words how much I enjoy

hosting this program and what an enormous personal disappointment it is

for me to consider losing it. My staff and I have worked unbelievably

hard and we are very proud of our contribution to the legacy of The

Tonight Show. But I cannot participate in what I honestly believe is its

destruction. Some people will make the argument that with DVRs and the

Internet a time slot doesn’t matter. But with the Tonight Show, I

believe nothing could matter more.

There has been speculation about my going to another network but, to set

the record straight, I currently have no other offer and honestly have

no idea what happens next. My hope is that NBC and I can resolve this

quickly so that my staff, crew, and I can do a show we can be proud of,

for a company that values our work.

Have a great day and, for the record, I am truly sorry about my hair;

it’s always been that way.

[DRW50]

He's right about the huge changes this move will bring. I think the Tonight Show brand needs a lot of repair work, moving the timeslot would be just one of many problems, but I can see why he feels the way he does. His comments are generally very classy, considering the circumstances.

I wonder if NBC might just let him leave and put Leno back on the Tonight Show.

[Juliajms]

I agree. I hope CO finds a soft landing place.

[bellcurve]

Wow. Conan ain't playin'!

Watch him leave! And I am glad ABC said they like their latenight schedule. I like it too. At least I like the first half hour of it.

[Juliajms]

I'm so over all legal and medical dramas. NBC should take their lead from cable and do something fresh. Obviously, they can't be as gritty as the cable shows, but they could come up with some fresh concepts. A good way to start is by setting the show in a city that isn't NY or LA.

[Sylph]

[Sylph]

Truth is, late night talk has become a bore, a revolving door of mostly male faces that are either long in the tooth (Leno and David Letterman), utterly uninteresting (the Jimmys, Fallon and Kimmel, and Carson Daly) or too quirky for the mainstream (Conan O'Brien and Craig Ferguson).

Like much old-school television programming, late night talk TV is dying, a slow painful death, the victim of a fickle customer who votes with the remote, who has the attention span of a hummingbird and who is only too happy to switch to a more compelling electronic amusement when the medium comes up short.

[DRW50]

It's nice to know that once again, the viewer gets the blame for the failure or a TV format. They somehow put down most of the talk show hosts, but also put down viewers for not sticking with the hosts they disdain.

[JackPeyton]

so the question i have is this... morning tv is dying. daytime is dying. evening is dying. primetime is dying. late night is dying? or, is it just network tv that is dying?