CNN Breaking News — Jay Leno going back to late nights after disappointing ratings for his prime-time show, NBC says.
7 thoughts on “Twitter: CNN Breaking News …”
kcatnd
NBC should have either taken Leno off the air completely on weeknights or kept him exactly where he was with The Tonight Show. By wedging him awkwardly before Conan’s chance at The Tonight Show and affiliate programming, it just made everybody worse off.
David K.
Agreed, with Leno still on, Conan was hamstrung. Personally I prefer Conan at the later time slot becuase he can do more awkward humor stuff. I doubt vomiting Kermit will ever be Tonight Show material 🙂
Sandy Underpants
Let me get this straight, Leno bombs in the ratings, gets cancelled due to lack of interest, so NBC decides to completely reshuffle the line-up they’ve had in place for about 50 years (or more) to jam a 30 minute Jay Leno show in after the local news ahead of the Tonite Show? First off, dump the local news if you want to improve your ratings, nobody watches that. In Los Angeles the local news is however many rapes, bank robberies, or hit and run fatalities that they can fit into the first 10 minutes, followed by the weather (it’s sunny… again), followed by the sports (can’t get that anywhere else), followed by the waterskiing squirrel. This isn’t really news, people. Leno announced his retirement 5 (or more) years ago, he should be a man of his word instead of insisting that NBC turn their evening schedule into Television Hindenburg.
David K.
Sandy, its not exactly that he was bombing, he was getting ratings on par with what he was pulling in on the Tonight Show, in prime time thats not high enough.
Sandy Underpants
When the available audience is about 3 times larger at 10pm than it is 11:30-12:30, going from a 5.0 rating on Tonite to a 1.5 at 10pm is a total disaster. Leno’s 10pm show only served to sabotage the entire late night NBC line-up, killing the lead-in to the 11pm news slot and all the shows following that fell like dominoes as a result. When Leno tanked the Tonite show back in 1992 and everyone wanted to throw him under the collector car, NBC stuck with him and let him try and build an audience independent of Carson’s, and after about 18 months Leno succeeded. Conan’s been the host of Tonite for what 6 months?
Be Fair to Conan!
David K.
Sandy, NBC made the decision to make a show for Leno, because they were too cheap to pay for shows and too afraid of letting him go to another network. I also don’t think he ever said he wanted to retire, NBC kind of made that the deal so they could keep Conan around.
Is it fair to Conan? No, but thats not Leno’s fault, its the NBC brasses fault. Of course why they still have jobs based on how bad they have done things the past 5 or so years is beyond me.
Sandy Underpants
I recall Leno’s retirement announcement, and the fact that it was so far ahead of the given end date that it seemed preposterous at the time. I found this article from 2004 in my search http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6115643/, which has Jay trying to avoid exactly what is happening right now. It does seem that NBC is to blame for the entire debacle. As the old saying goes, when you try to please everybody you end up pleasing nobody. Or something like that.
CNN Breaking News — Jay Leno going back to late nights after disappointing ratings for his prime-time show, NBC says.
NBC should have either taken Leno off the air completely on weeknights or kept him exactly where he was with The Tonight Show. By wedging him awkwardly before Conan’s chance at The Tonight Show and affiliate programming, it just made everybody worse off.
Agreed, with Leno still on, Conan was hamstrung. Personally I prefer Conan at the later time slot becuase he can do more awkward humor stuff. I doubt vomiting Kermit will ever be Tonight Show material 🙂
Let me get this straight, Leno bombs in the ratings, gets cancelled due to lack of interest, so NBC decides to completely reshuffle the line-up they’ve had in place for about 50 years (or more) to jam a 30 minute Jay Leno show in after the local news ahead of the Tonite Show? First off, dump the local news if you want to improve your ratings, nobody watches that. In Los Angeles the local news is however many rapes, bank robberies, or hit and run fatalities that they can fit into the first 10 minutes, followed by the weather (it’s sunny… again), followed by the sports (can’t get that anywhere else), followed by the waterskiing squirrel. This isn’t really news, people. Leno announced his retirement 5 (or more) years ago, he should be a man of his word instead of insisting that NBC turn their evening schedule into Television Hindenburg.
Sandy, its not exactly that he was bombing, he was getting ratings on par with what he was pulling in on the Tonight Show, in prime time thats not high enough.
When the available audience is about 3 times larger at 10pm than it is 11:30-12:30, going from a 5.0 rating on Tonite to a 1.5 at 10pm is a total disaster. Leno’s 10pm show only served to sabotage the entire late night NBC line-up, killing the lead-in to the 11pm news slot and all the shows following that fell like dominoes as a result. When Leno tanked the Tonite show back in 1992 and everyone wanted to throw him under the collector car, NBC stuck with him and let him try and build an audience independent of Carson’s, and after about 18 months Leno succeeded. Conan’s been the host of Tonite for what 6 months?
Be Fair to Conan!
Sandy, NBC made the decision to make a show for Leno, because they were too cheap to pay for shows and too afraid of letting him go to another network. I also don’t think he ever said he wanted to retire, NBC kind of made that the deal so they could keep Conan around.
Is it fair to Conan? No, but thats not Leno’s fault, its the NBC brasses fault. Of course why they still have jobs based on how bad they have done things the past 5 or so years is beyond me.
I recall Leno’s retirement announcement, and the fact that it was so far ahead of the given end date that it seemed preposterous at the time. I found this article from 2004 in my search http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6115643/, which has Jay trying to avoid exactly what is happening right now. It does seem that NBC is to blame for the entire debacle. As the old saying goes, when you try to please everybody you end up pleasing nobody. Or something like that.