Jay misses an Opportunity
By Mark Monchek − September 17, 2009
Jay Leno, in his prime time debut, missed a huge opportunity to redefine prime time television. Jay was fired by NBC after beating David Letterman for 15 years in the 11:30 PM time slot. The network, afraid of losing Conan O’Brien, and that Jay was losing the younger demographic, took Jay out of one of the most lucrative shows on TV. Afraid of having to compete with Leno on another station at 11:30 pm, they offered him 5 nights a week in prime time. The Leno shows costs 80% less than a typical prime time one hour drama. There has not been a live variety show in prime time for a few decades. Can’t even remember Sonny and Cher?
Anyway, NBC has spent $10 million promoting the show and the PR machine has been in high gear. I have seen Jay everywhere, even NPR. I watched the first 3 nights with great anticipation. NBC set the bar very low. Earlier this week, Time‘s James Poniewozik wrote in a cover story about Leno, “NBC has set the bar low enough for a sleeping man to clear. If Leno can just get the ratings he did in late night, some 5 million viewers (paltry by 10 p.m. standards), his show will be more profitable than what it replaced in that time slot, reps say.”
So, here is he opportunity for Jay: do something really groundbreaking in prime time. He has nothing much to lose; he’s a gazillionaire anyway. If he succeeds he could pave the way for other live shows, something different than the same uninspired crap that is on now.
So, what’s happened, so far? Jay blew away the expectations of his biggest fans-18 million viewers- the first night. If those numbers don’t meaning anything to you, NBC has not had those numbers since the 2008 Summer Olympics. We are talking awesome numbers in the league of Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives and other top-rated shows. And the numbers have held up well, with almost 14 million on Wednesday.
But what about the show itself? One critic said it was like watching the Tonight Show in Central Standard Time. Basically, same ol’ same ol’. Same Jay-shtick in the opening monologue, same tired banter with bandleader Kevin Eubanks. Kanye West’s mea culpa was unexpected but provided no real insight, so Kanye missed an opportunity as well. 10 boring questions for Miley Cirus were just that.
New viewers will get bored and drop off and we will be left with the same slow death of network television. DVR, cable, video-on-demand and YouTube are making the network the province of live sports, reality TV, news, and little else.
Come on Jay, you’ve still got a few months. Let’s get busy and come up with something new, like you and David Letterman did early in your careers. Give me a call and I am happy to come down and give you a hand.
2 comments
By Rich September 21, 2009 at 11:50am
By MarkMonchek September 21, 2009 at 12:39pm
The Emmy Awards was telling in that the opening song by Neil Patrick Harris was an ode to keeping things the way they are. Julia Louis Dreyfus continued the siege mentality by saying “Amy (Amy Poehler) and I are honored to be presenting on the last official year of network broadcast television.” Nuff said
I wholeheartedly agree. It seems as though the comfort of familiarity is the only thing Leno is bringing to the table, regardless of his time slot.