Can't wait for The Jay Leno Show at 10pm to begin this fall? You don't have to. To get you (and perhaps NBC) habituated in the habit beforehand, NBC has begun airing promos for The Jay Leno Show every night exactly at 10 p.m.
According to Variety the promos will get more elaborate and by the end of the month and include mini-monologues from Leno.
"From the moment he left 'The Tonight Show' until the moment his new show starts, there won't be a day where Jay doesn't appear on NBC," said NBC Universal TV Group chief marketing officer John Miller. "We want to create a 10 o'clock habit."
Some of the spots will only be 20-30 seconds, but NBC has already hired one of Leno's writers to come up with jokes and minute-long monologues will start appearing by the end of June, according to Variety.
Here's the promo from June 8:
Really good marketing idea, although it might take away some of the buzz for Leno’s first night since he won’t have the “oh my god, he’s back after three months of not being on TV” factor.
Damn you, Leno!!! Why do you have to kill network TV?
Minute-long monologues? Could NBC maybe have trouble selling their ad inventory in the 10pm hour this summer…?
His giant unfunny no-brain egotistical noggin was the scariest thing I’ve ever seen.
I think it’s time for Zucker to be outed.
I don’t understand why Leno is getting blamed for this. NBC is the one that made the decision to put him on at 10:00pm.
Good work, NBC
Now they just need to hire some writers who are funny.
Or better yet, just let Jay write his own – he was generally funnier during the strike.
The habit of getting people to watch at 10pm? That’s the strangest thing I’ve ever heard. Clearly, NBC is realizing that this is going to be an epic failure and they’re panicking. I never hated Jay Leno before, even though I like Letterman & Conan way better, but I am so sick of him at this point. Its not his fault but I just want him to go away forever.
Here’s a problem. How many people are watching NBC at 10 now? Wouldn’t those people be predisposed to watching Jay anyway? The last time I watched NBC regularly at 10 (actually 9, Central)? It was to watch Jerry Orbach’s last Law and Order original shows. Just checked. That was five years ago. Wow.
I watch a lot of CBS in that time slot but the cable networks also run a lot of great shows at that time too. Even if I liked Jay, which I don’t, I wouldn’t watch. I’ll save my evening comedy time for Daily Show, Colbert Report, and Letterman.
As as psychologist I have to let Robert know he used habituation incorrectly. Habituation is the extinguishing of a stimulus response, which is the opposite of what NBC wants. Just to set the psycho-babel record straight.
good call! (perhaps Freudian on my part)
I’m going to just be an irritant and say they should do this with Chuck.
Then I might actually be able to stand the promos.
dustin says:
“As as psychologist I have to let Robert know he used habituation incorrectly. Habituation is the extinguishing of a stimulus response, which is the opposite of what NBC wants. Just to set the psycho-babel record straight.”
Of course, (1) the word used wasn’t “habituation” and (2) “habituate” and relatives did not spring, like Athena from the forehead of Zeus, from behavioral psychology as fully formed, novel examples of pure jargon.
“Habituated” as “fixed in a habit” is perfectly acceptable English.
score one for the home team.
Great idea in theory! The FX Channel ran mini-sodes during “Rescue Me’s” extended hiatus to maintain interest. NBC doesn’t have to “maintain interest” in Jay Leno though. His fans are suffering withdrawal in droves. The damage Zucker has inflicted on late night television is irreparable. Soon Zucker, et al will need to figure out how they are going to replace their revenue shortfalls as “The Tonight Show” dies a slow death with Conan at the helm. For the last several evenings, Letterman has been beating Conan hands down. I mean really: Howard Stern vs. Bonnie Raitt? Give me a break.
Give Zucker his walking papers, get rid of Fallon and put Conan and Jay back on their respective shows. It takes a very big person to admit a mistake of this magnitude. NBC forgot the old adage, “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.”
It’s anybody’s guess, but how long will it be before Leno ends up on ABC after this debacle? Letterman’s riding on borrowed time as well. As soon as he’s competing head to head with Leno again, his ratings will slip.
Kermonk said: Now they just need to hire some writers who are funny. Or better yet, just let Jay write his own – he was generally funnier during the strike.
Agreed. I found he was funnier than his writers as well during the strike. Once the writers came back, I gave it a few days and, after realizing it was back to the S-Squared, D-Squared (same stuff {being polite here}, different day), I didn’t watch Leno again until the last episode, when Conan was passed the torch (and that was more out of curiosity than anything else — the jokes were still not terribly funny).
Leno has 3 months. Let’s see what he does with it.
I stopped watching late nite when Carson retired. Greta on FOX is more important than any NBC show.
catherine i do the same
Meanwhile, NBC gets (you) out of the habit of watching The Tonight Show Without Jay Leno at 11:35.