Perhaps you've heard or read about Jay Leno leaving the Tonight Show - in order to host an hour long slot before the 11 PM (10 CST) News... every night.That's a real revolution in television. Putting Jay Leno on at the 10 PM (9CST) every night.
Every Night.
NBC has decided that they're going to get the cane out for scripted 1 hour dramas, cop shows, doctors and lawyers and news shows. That's a major move. It's either going to be a huge success - based on the savings of 1/8th the cost of what it's replacing... (Jay's salary vs. an entire program - such as ER) or a massive epic failure because of the potential PR laughing stock that could be as NBC concedes that much prime time real estate to its competitors. (This could be a bigger fail than the Chevy Chase Talk Show.)
For a Network to concede it's place in the media landscape to give up not only prime time real estate, but to signal that original programming is no longer a business they want to be in is a major sea change in the way that content is delivered.
Jay and NBC has the entire summer to fine tune their offering. I think they're going to mess around with the format and have daily focus groups to determine what works best. Personally, I think they only way that this will work is if Jay becomes the 21st Century's Ed Sullivan.
Mondays could be New Music night - where Jay showcases new talent -- which has the potential to be revolutionary in a time when the music industry is in a freefall decline. He could have three or four bands showcased the way that they do it on the BBC -either Tops of the Pops or something like that. It could be cool. Maybe if they toss in a very established band or two to get you to tune in.
Tuesday could be comedy night - and it could be a competition... vote on the internet or cell phone. Thow in an established gagster - like Robin Williams and make him compete too.
Wed, Results for the Comedy competition, and Stupid Pet Tricks... or something. Uh, did we do the music thing yet?
Thursday, Another competition show - uh, singing? Guitar Hero? Juggling? Oh, and Typo Headlines from small market newspapers. Oh, maybe we can get some celebrities to talk about their religion or a new movie that's coming out tomorrow?
Friday... Jay Walking... the whole hour.
How is this not going to result in an epic fail? You tell me?
It will fail because he's an unfunny hack. Not clever, not hip whatsoever. I've met one person under the age of 50 that enjoys Leno and he's conservative. So he likes his comedy simple and doesn't enjoy comedy that challenges him. Conan IS hip and clever and used to write for SNL and The Simpsons, both shows that have been hip and clever at certain points of their run. You can point to several episodes during Conan's tenure at The Simpsons that could be considered "classic" Simpsons. Go ride your cars and motorcycles off into the sunset Jay and leave us all alone..you big chinned d-bag!
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