The End to NBC’s Experiment

While the question of late night is still up in the air since NBC’s announcement that Jay Leno would no longer be at 10 p.m., part of the schedule has been organized. In place of “The Jay Leno Show” there will be “Law & Order”, Jerry Seinfeld’s crime, marriage comedy series, and the family drama “Parenthood”. Though while this part of the schedule is set, there has been nothing else confirmed about what NBC is planning to do with its late night lineup.

What rumors suggest in regards to late night is that Conan O’Brian would continue as the host of “The Tonight Show” up until Friday, January 22nd though O’Brian’s internet supporters and publicist claim to have had no knowledge of this. However, O’Brian had planned for a break for his show the week of January 25th so he will be off at that time. If he’ll be coming back or not is another question. On the other side of late-night battle, rumors have been flying about Jay Leno receiving a new deal that would give him an hour long show, thus pushing O’Brian out of the 12:05 slot. So far, none of these rumors have been confirmed.

The main reason for this whole fiasco is due to NBC putting Jay Leno at 10 p.m. The result was local stations losing people for their local news which followed. This in turn made them lost precious advertising revenue and thus brings an end to the experiment with this whole contest of wills between Leno and O’Brian being the current result. As for what the final result will be from this is anyone’s guess.