(photo © NBC)
NBC has time and time again said that it was letting Jay Leno go when his contract ends in May of '09 as earlier announced. But now that the network can't catch a break with any of their programming they are reportedly keeping Jay Leno on and making him a primetime man according to
The New York Times.
The offer of a new weeknight show for Mr. Leno at 10 p.m., an idea that NBC executives said Monday came from the NBC chief executive, Jeff Zucker, not only allows NBC to retain Mr. Leno’s services, but also means the network may be able to greatly reduce costs of developing and producing other prime-time shows.
This will be a TV first to have a talk show air 5 days a week during the primetime hours.
So that means NBC will have Leno at 10p, Conan O'Brien at 11:34p, Jimmy Fallon at 12:37a and Carson Daly at 1:36a. That is a lot of talk and a lot of hope that there are that many guests to book to fill all those hours of talk. It will be interesting to see how he does.
Personally I think this is a desperate decision by Jeff Zucker. Can someone please explain to me why he is still running NBC, how much lower does the once number 1 network have to sink before he is finally given the old heave ho?
Hopefully Jay staying at NBC is good for Jimmy Kimmel Live! because with all those hours of talk the only one I will be watching will be JKL!
