Host Jay Leno gestures during a panel for his upcoming television series "The Jay Leno Show" at the Television Critics Association Cable summer press tour in Pasadena, Calif. on August 5, 2009.MARIO ANZUONI
NBC has confirmed that the Jay Leno prime-time experiment is over.
NBC Universal Television Entertainment Chairman Jeff Gaspin said Sunday that Leno's nightly prime-time show will end with the beginning of the Winter Olympics on Feb. 12.
Gaspin says NBC wants Leno to do an 11:35 p.m. show each night, a return to his old timeslot. He wants Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Fallon's shows to shift back a half hour. Gaspin says that's not a done deal, but he hopes to have NBC's late-night lineup cleared up by the beginning of the Olympics.
Gaspin said Leno's show performed well enough in the ratings for the networks, but it did not meet the needs of NBC's affiliates. As of now, O'Brien's show will retain its Tonight Show title. Under the new schedule, O'Brien will host The Tonight Show from 12:05 to 1:05 a.m., followed by Jimmy Fallon's show for an undetermined length.
Full story: Globe and Mail TV critic Andrew Ryan blogged live from the NBC announcement in Pasadena.
On Saturday, Leno told The Globe and Mail he believed he was moving back to late-night television.
"I think so," he said when asked by The Globe whether he would be returning to his 11:35 p.m. time slot. He made the comment during a so-called meet-and-greet between performances at a casino just outside Vancouver Saturday night.
Reports began circulating on Thursday that NBC was pulling the plug on The Jay Leno Show, which airs at 10 p.m., and would move Leno back to 11:35 pm, his old Tonight Show time slot, after the Vancouver Olympics (NBC has the U.S. broadcast rights to The Games).
When asked by The Globe on Saturday whether he would be moving to 11:30, Leno hesitated for a moment while a photographer took a picture and then said "I think so" a couple of times. But he hemmed and hawed, indicating uncertainty. "It's all screwed up," he said.
The experiment of moving Leno to prime time has been a failure, industry watchers note. Ratings for Leno's 10 p.m. show have been disappointing, and The Tonight Show's ratings, with O'Brien in the host chair, have also dropped.
Leno cracked a couple of jokes about the rumoured move on his show Thursday night but has not made a public statement about his future. His remarks to The Globe were not made in the context of a media interview, although the reporter was introduced to Leno as being from The Globe and Mail.
Leno was in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond to perform two stand-up comedy shows at the River Rock Show Theatre Saturday night. In between performances, he shook hands and took photos backstage with a steady stream of well-wishers who had managed to get on a guest list for the private meet-and-greet.
Despite the off-stage drama that has set off a media storm, Leno - dressed casually in a denim shirt - appeared to be in good spirits, chatting and joking with fans.
While his 90-minute stand-up routine included topical references to the Tiger Woods sex scandal and the attempted Christmas Day bombing of an airplane, he made no mention on-stage of his own headline-making predicament.
People attending the shows were mixed on Leno's possible departure from primetime.
"I think it's better at 10 [p.m.]because I don't have to stay up so late [to watch him] said Adrian Laszkiewicz, 20, of New Westminster, adding he prefers O'Brien to Leno.
But others said they'd be happy to see Leno return to the later time slot.
"I'd like him back at 11:30," said Shirley Byron of Surrey. "I like to watch him before I go to bed."
With a report from The Associated Press
Globe television critic Andrew Ryan blogged live from Pasadena on NBC's announcement
Marsha Lederman