By Frank Macek
8:50 PM Update: The New York Times reports that pressed by affiliates and shrinking ratings, NBC has a plan in the works to radically alter its latenight television lineup, restoring Jay Leno to his old spot at 11:35 each weeknight, while pushing the man who replaced him, Conan O'Brien, to a starting time of 12:05 a.m.
4:47 PM: The Director's Cut has learned NBC is about to blow up Leno at 10 PM, according to website TMZ.COM
According to TMZ, they learned "Jay's 10:00 PM show will go on hiatus February 1. After the Olympics, Jay will take back his 11:30 PM time slot. What has not been decided -- whether Jay's show will be a half hour, followed by Conan, or whether Jay's show will be an hour and NBC says sayonara to Mr. O'Brien."
NBC is denying the rumors saying "Jay Leno is one of the most compelling entertainers in the world today. As we have said all along, Jay's show has performed exactly as we anticipated on the network," an NBC rep said in a statement issued Thursday. "It has, however, presented some issues for our affiliates. Both Jay and the show are committed to working closely with them to find ways to improve the performance," reports MSNBC.COM
What is missing from the statement tells the most about the story. Clearly Leno is floundering, but NBC is committed to the show, but not at 10 p.m. The statement DOES NOT deny the show is moving to another time slot, 11:30 p.m.
All this follows the recent 51% acquisition of NBC by Comcast from GE...and the poor showing of Leno's ratings in the 10 pm hour - although NBC says they have delivered what they promised advertisers for ratings.
We figured something was up on Tuesday when NBC started placing orders for LOTS of pilot show - the most of any network, for the least amount of time slots available.
