Spotlight Feature: Is It Finally Time to Cancel Leno?

By Frank Macek

After two months, NBC executives must be asking themselves whether its finally time to shelve "The Jay Leno Show."

The show's strong start in September has been followed by a dramatic drop off that has kept the network in 4th place during the fall and has seriously hurt affilates 11 PM newscasts across the country.

Nielsen ratings recently showed Cleveland as among Jay's most watched markets. Sad thing is, the ratings have wobbled between only a three and a five rating every week since the show's launch. We can only imagine how smaller markets must be faring.

NBC brass suggested early on that even a three rating would satisfy advertisers and make the network a ton of money in comparison to the amount they would have to pay for dramas or scripted shows in the 10 p.m. hour.

But is destroying the network worth it in the long run?

With NBC's arrogance the show would re-invent television, without considering "what if" the show failed, the network apparently never believed how such a failure would dampen affiliates news numbers at 11.

With all due respect to Jay and his staff, the show has not improved since its first week or two. In fact, the show has become very difficult to watch for a quarter hour, let alone a full 60 minutes. The skits are lame, the interviews are bland and the momentum seems lost in a show that seems the same night after night.

We highly doubt any network would stick with such a low rated show in its 10 p.m. hour for more than a week or two, let alone for 8 weeks.

With the recent news that NBC may be on the block by such suitors as Comcast, we wonder aloud whether a change in ownership could bring a quicker end to the show and a return to a traditional 10 p.m. hour of drama in some form.

Last week, Jay himself suggested he would be happy to return to the "Tonight Show," if NBC asked. This kind of statement makes us think Jay doesn't feel the show is working or knows something we don't going on behind the scenes.

In addition, Conan's numbers have slipped dramatically, giving the higher ground to David Letterman at 11:35 p.m. - not to mention how stiff Jimmy Fallon continues to look as host of "Late Night."

One idea we floated on the "Director's Cut Blog" not long ago was for NBC to consider allowing local affiliates the option of moving their newscasts to 10 p.m. weeknights as a compromise.

The network would push back Leno to 10:35 pm. and leave the rest of its late night schedule intact.

As of yet, we have not heard of any rumblings to this nature.

Perhaps the station in Boston who originally refused to air Leno was right after all.

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Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions expressed in this feature are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of WKYC or Gannett Broadcasting.

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