Comments on: Jay Leno Show Already Failing

By: George Taylor

George Taylor — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 21:20:10 +0000

I am a big Jay Leno fan and will not tune out. But it is painful to watch Jay command the poorly designed set. Keven Ubanks is so far away he must be in a diffrent time zone. The set has lots of color and gimics but no personality. Everything is spread out like two freight cars end to end. When I watch Jay I want to get comfortable and not be straining my eyes to catch the action fifty feet away. Fire the people and redesign the set. I would gladley do it for free or go out and hire the people that designed “Americias Got Talent” or the “Oprah” set.
Put Jay on the road for a week and fix the set.

By: Krusty

Krusty — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 18:35:04 +0000

Sean, you are right, however advertisers were more than likely reluctant to buy Leno during the up front, choosing to see if it had any numbers first, and dedicating their 10pm prime buys to proven shows on CBS and ABC. NBC will come out smelling fine on this… it’s the affiliates who are taking it in the family jewels on this. With the lack of ratings, national scatter buys plus all local prime buys will be diverted to other stations, slowly killing NBC affiliates. It will also kill the late news product on those stations. As a result, NBC will become weaker across the board as people jump ship from their affiliates to watching other programming.

By: Sean D. Martin

Sean D. Martin — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 23:35:25 +0000

Remember, the goal of the Jay Leno Show isn’t to win it’s time slot. The goal is to have a show so cheap to produce that it’s more profitable than a one-hour drama.

And by that measure, it may still be quite successful.

By: Duros62

Duros62 — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 21:32:18 +0000

Are they counting on Boomers who don’t feel like staying up past their bedtime to watch a bunch of lame jokes?

I think we have a winner, no more calls.

By: Seth 4:10

Seth 4:10 — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 21:12:18 +0000

Bring back LIFE!

(also, I still wear my Enforcers jersey)

By: KXB

KXB — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 21:04:12 +0000

This also shows the problem with a focus on East Coast and West Coast schedules. In Chicago, Leno comes on at 9:00 PM. He is not competing against just CBS, FOX, and ABC. He competes with whatever game is on ESPN or a local station. I usually watch a DVD of a show at that time – right now, that is Friday Night Lights. Or, I watch something I recorded and did not have a chance to watch earlier. In Chicago, people are conditioned to watch the 10:00 news, and then a late night comedy show.

I wouldn’t write him off yet. While his humor is not my thing, he is widely recognized for an unmatched work ethic. He may tinker with the show to make it more watchable. After all, it took awhile for The Daily Show to become the show it is today.

By: Bitter Scribe

Bitter Scribe — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 20:49:12 +0000

I don’t get what’s supposed to be so special about basically repackaging the Tonight Show and airing it 90 minutes earlier. Are they counting on Boomers who don’t feel like staying up past their bedtime to watch a bunch of lame jokes?

By: d.walker

d.walker — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 20:04:58 +0000

This is interesting, especially considering how the media was acting as if Jay Leno had just invented slice bread with this prime-time show, which was a huge slap in the face to the agreement the network made with Conan O’Brien. But you know I don’t like Conan in that time slot, he seems to have lost his edge there.