Axeramm

They took another shot at Conan tonight. Jay was visiting families or something and he was doing stuff with a baby. Jay was gonna put the baby to bed and asked if there was anything he should know while doing this. The parents said that the baby was scared of Conan and then showed a clip of the father holding the baby and playing a bit of Conan doing something on screen. The baby looked at the tv and then started crying.

wmansir

This is exactly what I thought. I know this is a cost cutting measure for NBC, but for the premiere you would think they would do something to make it special other than getting "big" guests. Frankly the guests weren't that great anyway, West's newsworthy appearance aside. Everything else seemed like standard Tonight Show fair. For the regular show to be like that is fine, if disappointing, but for a premiere it's incomprehensible.

PS. While I'm not a regular late night watcher, I'm also not a Leno hater.

Eric D.

I thought Jim Norton was pretty funny on the second episode.

Michael Corvin

This is still on?

CreamyGoodness

We'll see what happens next week when new shows are up against it on ABC and CBS.

It's basically the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. They should have renamed Conan's show to something else. Actually, I'm of the opinion that Carson should have taken the title "The Tonight Show" with him when he left.

I'm hoping it bombs. Can't stand Leno - He ripped off 'headlines' from Letterman's 'small town news', 'Jay walking' from Stern's 'homeless/stripper game', and even his interviews are plotted out ahead of time to remove all spontaneity.

JasonF

Leno will get trounced ... and NBC won't care, because his show is so much cheaper to produce than scripted or even reality programming would be. The question isn't whether Leno can beat CSI (he can't and everyone knows it); the question is whether Leno's show is more profitable for NBC than would be Medium (for example).

Deftones

Looks like the hype didn't last long. Dropped almost 50% to 10.2 million last night.

MrE

From WSJ: "Advertisers are buying spots for about half what they'd spend per commercial in new episodes of dramas on competing networks at the same time of night, Madison Avenue executives say. NBC says the Leno show can turn a profit at those reduced levels because it is cheap to produce."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125262696948501475.html

mphtrilogy

And this is with a decent lead in Of Biggest Loser...

Jay will get crushed in the fall.

outcastja

Any word on Conan's numbers?

bigjim25

I agree.

Rypro 525

Tonight Leno has Robin Williams (drinking game anyone?) and Miley Cyrus (overhyped fake whore)

movieking

Norton was good, but that Tom Cruise/Cameron Diaz piece was just horrible. It was actually awkward to watch.

And I thought that Leno's Headline came before Letterman's Small Town News? I didn't watch either religiously, so I wouldn't know for sure.

calhoun07

This.

I don't get why people are so shocked that he would just transplant what he did from the Tonight Show to prime time. If people didn't like him on the Tonight Show, did they really think he was going to be doing something different? Conan took what he did on Late Night and transplanted it to the Tonight Show. Letterman took what he did on Late Night and transplanted it to CBS. There are no new surprises when it comes to these shows.

If you liked Leno's Tonight Show, the Jay Leno show will replace the void just fine. If you didn't like it, you best not tune in.

As far as the comment about not liking the name "The Primetime Band..." I read that Leno wanted to call the show Weeknights, so it could just be another brand on NBC like Today and the Tonight Show and Late Night. It's like they were toying with the idea (Couldn't call it Prime Time, though...that was taken by ABC if I recall right) and failed to come up with a better name for the band. I don't see where it matters that much, though.

mcnabb

I have to say I kinda wish they put all these shows on at 10PM, instead of 'late night', simply because I don't last past 11:30 anymore.

Now many will say because of DVR/TIVO, it doesn't really matter, but I have had DVR for many years, and I just don't really like watching the late night shows the day after, I enjoy watching them live.

I have watched Leno all week, and yes it is a simple rehash of his Tonight Show, but I am really liking the 10PM timeslot, because there is always nothing on that time of night. Usually shows that I watch every night like Seinfeld, King of Queens, and other reruns don't start till 11PM.

calhoun07

Maybe if the format takes off, you never know... I doubt Conan or Letterman would give up their slots to go up against Leno in prime time, but it would be interesting to see how the other networks respond if this really catches on.

Gizmo

Jay should really do 35 mins of Headlines with the remaining 10 or so minutes of the show be about guests.

wmansir

Not good. Letterman has been beating him in overall numbers for the last 10 weeks, basically since a week or two after his premiere. Nightline also beats him fairly regularly. NBC's spin is that Conan has remained #1 in the 18-49 demo.

Giantrobo

Spin? Isn't that pretty much the only Demo that really matters?

Darknite39

The best part of yesterday's show may have been Conando.

SonOfAStu

The DL Hughley segment tonight was amazing. And the lyrics to the song that Bruce Hornsby sang were borderline insanely ridiculous. Space is the place?

Count Dooku

Letterman was doing the bits Small Town News and Dumb Ads in the 80s.

Leno's Headlines is just both of those put together.

Quake1028

Well seeing as last night it was beaten by a repeat of The Mentalist, this doesn't bode well for when it faces real competition.

10 p.m.

CBS: "The Mentalist" rerun (8.7 million, 6.0/11)
NBC: "The Jay Leno Show" (8.5 million, 5.5/10)
ABC: "Private Practice" rerun (3.4 million, 2.5/4)

18-49 leader: "The Jay Leno Show" (2.7)

spamurai

Tuesday/Wednesday/Friday should be good nights ratings-wise. (Unless there's a show from CBS I'm missing)

Monday/Thursday will be killer. (CSI/Mentalist)

Either way, NBC will be happy in the end because it's cheap to produce and gets higher ratings than the shows that were usually on.

edit - NBC: "The Office" season premiere (8.1 million, 4.8/8)/"Community" series premiere (7.7 million, 4.6/8)

It improved upon the Office premiere so I guess all's not lost?

calhoun07

Leno used to do segments of something similar to "Headlines" back in the day when he was just a stand up comic making the rounds, including on his appearances on the NBC Late Night with David Letterman. In the 80s.

And I would dare say Leno's take on it is a helluva lot more funny that Letterman's.