Tonight, with little fanfare, The Jay Leno Show will mark its final telecast, ending less than five months after it began.
Plans for the show were announced in late 2008, and so it turns out the hand wringing leading up to the show lasted almost twice as long as the show itself.
Soon, at least briefly, focus will turn to Jay Leno returning to The Tonight Show on Monday, March 1. Sooner still, you'll probably see a gazillion articles about how NBC is promoting that return during the Olympics.
Then the dust settles. For us, at least, it will be interesting to see if and how NBC's primetime ratings fates change without The Jay Leno Show, particularly in the 10pm hour.
The end of The Jay Leno Show is hailed as a great victory by and for creators of scripted content. But when the fall schedules are announced in May will there be much/any more scripted content on the schedule next fall than there was in Fall 2009 -- and not just on NBC but across all the major broadcast nets?
Until then?
- Will Jay Leno improve the ratings for The Tonight Show?
- Will Jay Leno be able to improve the rating for The Tonight Show back to where they were before he left?
- Will Jay Leno be able to recapture the significant lead The Tonight Show had over Letterman's Late Show?
I think it time to end all hostilities towards Jay. That’s what the Superbowl commercial was all about. I can’t stand Letterman, but I thought that was very noble what he did. He should do something for Jay promote his show during the Olympics that would be great.
It’s time to end all hostilities this is ridicules, Three rich whites going at each other. That’s what the Superbowl commercial was about. I sure hope that this will be the end. Coco people need to get a clue. Stop the Bashing or you are going to bash him out of another job.
“Three rich whites”??? WHEN did RACE become a factor in this story?
When did this happen? Jay Leno is on primetime?! And his last show is tonight?
When did he stop being on the tonight show?!
I think Jay Leno should take a nice hiatus when his primetime show leaves the air. He has been burned twice by his employer and he should not allow himself to be burned by them again. When are they going to force him to retire from the Tonight Show again? I think Jay can find himself a better employer who will promote him and his talent instead of putting him in awkward and embarrassing situations like these last two where he has had to do damage control.
How is this a victory for scripted shows when most of the scripted content being churned out for NBC is usually a ratings disaster and ends up being canceled? This spin sounds like the same mind set that produced ABC’s “quiet success” mantra. I guess great minds do think alike.
Let’s see the numbers for his final show. I bet they won’t be half of Conan’s.
Never forgive, never forget. Jay Leno is finished.
Yes-No-No
Leno will probably be neck and neck with Letterman now on a nightly basis.
Yet the Tonight Show will have higher ratings once Jay takes over.
Jay, we hardly knew ye…would sit on Dave’s casting couch.
To the “Three Rich Whites” folks, I thought Deon Cole proved Conan was, in fact, Black.
Jay Leno has a lot of bad publicity after the Conan issue, he’ll probably have lower ratings than Letterman.
The Tonight Show was on a downward ratings trend before Conan ever took over. So my guess is that Jay will not be pulling in a 1.4 rating. Now, will he have more total viewers than Conan? Yes. But if the majority of those viewers are over 49 it doesn’t really matter.
So my prediction is more total viewers, comparable demo to what Conan had.
I wonder how many viewers his first “new” show will pull in….
Jose: “Let’s see the numbers for his final show. I bet they won’t be half of Conan’s.”
Leno’s going on vacation for a couple weeks. Conan was going for good.
@Jose
“Never forgive, never forget. ”
You could try growing up.
http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Oprah-Talks-About-the-Tonight-Show-Video
I think the stink from the prime-time show will haunt him for the next year or so.
Funny, it was the Oprah interview that damaged him the most in my eyes.
Hopefully the hiatus will give him some time to catch his breath and come up with some new material to revitalize the Tonight Show.
I think he’s courting disaster if he just tries to import the Leno show straight to 11:35.
@rue, I don’t see why he wouldn’t do that.
He did The Tonight Show, mostly, at 10PM. So he’ll probably send it right back to 11:35.
Jay may face more competition from Nightline than Letterman but I think he’ll be on top sooner than later.