Leno v. O’Brien

by Scott H. Payne on January 13, 2010

I don’t have much to add to the “pushing Conan O’Brien’s Tonight Show back by thirty minutes to accommodate the Jay Leno Show” story, other than to ask: when was the last time anyone actually considered Jay Leno worth watching (if ever)?

Tagged as: Conan B'Brien, Jay Leno, NBC, Tonight Show

Scott is a sometimes blogger and social media consultant/principal at East Side Media. In addition to writing at the League of Ordinary Gentlemen, Scott is also a founding member of Beams and Struts and a fellow at the Canadian Council for Democracy's blog the Commons. You can reach Scott via email and follow him on Twiter.

{ 6 comments }

1 Jaybird January 13, 2010 at 11:30 am

Those of us who still miss Brian Mulroney tune in from time to time.

With the sound off.

2 Keljeck January 13, 2010 at 11:31 am

Let me put it this way, as a result of all of this everyone at late night has gotten funnier. Except Jay Leno. I swore his show last night was a rerun, but he was just recycling old jokes.

3 Kyle January 13, 2010 at 11:49 am

I don’t know, I think there’s some social worth in Headlines and Jaywalking. That said, I like Leno but rarely make an effort to watch him and unlike everyone else in my generation I don’t get Conan. I also don’t particularly enjoy Letterman, so maybe it’s a a late night thing, or an east coast – west coast thing.

4 Sam M January 13, 2010 at 12:14 pm

I agree that Headlines was a good bit. Plus, it was reliably on right after the monologue, so you could catch that part then bail.

5 Lev January 13, 2010 at 12:56 pm

Well, obviously nobody has a reason to watch Leno, since none of his audience followed him to primetime. I suspect that putting Leno back at 11:30 won’t do much–Letterman has had half a year to poach away the Leno viewers who weren’t down with Conan, and it might well wind up making Conan bolt to Fox, taking his fans with him.

I always found it strange how NBC announced the transition in 2004 or so. Why not just do it in 2004? Or announce it in 2009? Of course, back then, NBC was still #1, with ER still going strong, West Wing and Law & Order anchoring Wednesday nights, and Friends on Thursdays, of course. I guess they figured they’d be on top for years and so they would be able to avoid looking like they were kicking Leno out, but now that they’re hemorrhaging from every direction it was just dumb.

6 Kyle January 13, 2010 at 1:29 pm

They announced it to keep Conan from jumping ship (to ABC or FOX) sooner than 2009. At the time Conan was ascendant and it was a smart move. The problem for NBC was by transition time, Leno was #1 in late night and he could move just as easily, so they thought they could cut expenditures by dropping the 10 o’clock drama slot, produce a cheaper show instead, maintain dominance of late night, and earn money. Then the affiliates complained and Conan’s Tonight Show numbers tanked. (Last year Letterman was down 20% now he’s #1 in late night)

IIRC, NBC hasn’t been #1 in primetime for sometime, 2004-05 was when they dropped to fourth.

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