Commentary

NBC's Big Leno Move: Part Misdirection; Part Syndication

by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, December 10, 2008

In football it's called a mis-direction play. In TV, it's called not showing all your programming cards.

For years Jeff Zucker, president and CEO of NBC Universal -- and other senior TV executives, for that matter -- have talked about non-profitable time periods: the 8 p.m. hours on weekday television, as well as any show on Friday or Saturday night.

But what didn't seem to be in the mix was the 10 p.m. Monday through Friday time slots.

Some media buyers are saying NBC's move in putting a new Jay Leno talk show at 10 p.m. every weekday night of the week is move morphed out of a syndication programmer's playback -- run low-cost "strip" programming five nights a week, and then try to sell it to big-time TV advertisers at big-network-like CPMs.

Program analysts also say this is nothing more than trimming the number of prime-time hours NBC has to program. Actually, it is more like airing "Oprah Winfrey" -- more of a mainstream talk show, with a median age of around 50, mostly appealing to women.

Give NBC credit for shaking things up and for keeping its word. Zucker said network television -- especially at NBC -- was poised to have a new model.

The misdirection is easy to figure out now. It's just part of an ongoing trend. NBC -- and other networks -- have had problems in launching new dramas, especially at the 10 p.m. hour. Years ago we were told networks had problems launching comedies. More recently, networks even had problems airing new reality shows.

The fact that Jay Leno is a proven commodity will help NBC. The network's decision in 2004 to give Conan O'Brien Leno's job had people scratching their heads at first. Soon afterwards there was anger at the realization that NBC would be giving up a top host running a top-rated show in the late night day part. Now, NBC reprieves itself -- sort of.

All this doesn't disguise the problem of poor-performing shows in other time periods for the network. The jury for NBC Entertainment co-chairman Ben Silverman is still in deliberations. Though probably not Silverman's decision alone, Leno's 10 p.m. move will be part of the evidence.

3 comments about "NBC's Big Leno Move: Part Misdirection; Part Syndication".

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Joanna Levenglick from Kids News Network, December 10, 2008 at 11:36 a.m.
This was a smart move all around to keep Leno on NBC and to put him on earlier. NBC was paying attention to what is going on in the economy, and had made a smart decision to cut back and still offer quality for the time. I watch Leno nightly and only stop watching when there are reruns. I also watch Conan nightly. I do feel that Conan's humor is geared for the younger audience and should be on at a later hour when the college kids are done with homework, etc. Leno has been on for I think 17 years and his audience is older and many go to sleep earlier. This is a brilliant move for I couldn't understand why NBC wanted to get rid of a good thing when they had it. Leno is popular and why invest in a show that has no following, and may bomb early after airing. In this economy, we need change in many ways. It is a time to seriously look at what you are spending, and to decide is it worth it? This change to bring Leno to Prime Time is nothing less than brilliant, and I am sure that more Networks will follow and ask themselves, "why didn't I think of that?"
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Paula Lynn from Who Else Unlimited, December 10, 2008 at 1:35 p.m.

How fast can you say TV/DVR? So if they thought it was difficult getting people to watch commercials before, oy. (After the novelty wears off, it will be a one person who want to be a $35 Millionaire.)

Marla Goldstein from Around The Bend Media, December 10, 2008 at 8:17 p.m.

If they really mean what they said about sharing time slots and truly moving to a year-round schedule, then this could really be a good thing. Let's say that Law & Order and Medium shared the 9pm slot on Wednesdays. NBC could conceivably schedule 22 weeks of L&O, followed by 22 weeks of Medium and keep reruns and disruptions to a minimum. It would be almost like the glory days when series had 39 ep. orders. Remember those?