Jay Leno was close enough to an agreement to star in an ABC late-night talk show that last week he called Walt Disney Co. President Robert Iger to break the news he would be staying at NBC, the New York Times reports. Leno, who will take the prime time 10 p.m. slot on NBC, described his agreement as “a huge financial commitment” from NBC, although he didn’t disclose the terms. He’s already thinking of how he can create a strong lead-in for NBC television stations’ late-night news.
—Aimee Picchi
Leno’s Courtesy Call to ABC’s Iger
Dec 16, 2008 • Post A Comment
I like Jay, but man am I really hoping to watch this idea crash and burn. He’s not the savior NBC is looking for. Then again with Silverman leading the charge they won’t find one either.
I wasn’t surprised Jay Leno stayed at NBC, but I was stunned to learn he’d be doing a five-nights-a-week show at 10 P.M.
I had expected Jay to host a once-weekly hour-long big-budget prime-time comedy/variety show for NBC starting in September of 2009.
Were I to give Jay and producer Debbie Vickers (who will be moving with him from “Tonight”) any advice, I would tell them that while they should keep the monologue and “Headlines” bits, they also should have some skits, musical performers, and very little interviewing of guests with any interviews maybe a minute to 90 seconds in length.
Doing the exact same show they now do at 11:30 will delight Jay’s hardcore fans, but at 10, they’ll need to attract a much larger audience. By de-emphasizing interviews and doing more comedy and musical performers, Leno, Vickers, and their staff will have a much better chance of making this show work.
And oh, yes: Broadcast it live (at least to the East Coast) to make it as topical as possible.