NBC FAIL

By now you've probably heard that NBC is considering throwing in the towel on the Jay-Leno-in-prime-time experiment. Everything is strictly rumor at this point, but given the swiftness with which the story broke, the fact that it went from a post on a small TV industry blog to pretty much every mainstream media outlet in the universe--from my local morning news show to the front page of today's New York Times--in less than 24 hours, you have to figure there's something to it.

This was a desperate, wrong-headed, foolish idea from the start, and I criticized it when it was first announced back in the spring. Not only was it a bad business decision that alienated TV writers and producers (whose scripted programming NBC shunned to make room on the schedule for Leno), but it's a continued slap in the face to Conan O'Brien, who has done everything NBC asked and is getting screwed over for it.

Why anoint someone the chosen successor to the seat behind the desk of The Tonight Show (whether or not you watch it, it's a television institution and an important job) and spend five years paving the way for the transition, then at the eleventh hour pull an end run and give the outgoing host a prime-time slot five nights a week? NBC got nervous about Conan's ability to maintain Leno's ratings; as it turns out, they were right, but that doesn't excuse their behavior. Either you bet on the horse, or you don't, but you can't change or rescind your bet halfway through the race.

And as if that's not enough bad behavior for one network, the scenario now being floated would involve giving Leno a half-hour show after the late news, and moving The Tonight Show to a 12:05 am starting time. Wow. That's hubris, pure and simple. That's saying, "We made a terrible mistake, but we can't bring ourselves to admit it, so we're just going to shuffle the deck chairs on this sinking ship again, and snub you [O'Brien] even worse in the meantime." I hope O'Brien has his lawyers looking for a loophole in his contract that would allow him to get the hell away from NBC.

Here's another question: if NBC does pull Leno from prime time, what are they going to use to fill those five hours per week? They probably have one or two midseason shows on deck, and I suppose they could pad those Biggest Loser episodes more than they already do, and throw on some (more) Law & Order reruns. I'm sure they'd like to rebroadcast Project Runway, but they probably can't because it's no longer airing on corporate cousin Bravo. They could borrow Burn Notice or In Plain Sight from USA, but that might imply that USA's programming is better than NBC's own. Oh, wait, it is. Oops.

I'm not the first person to say this, but Jeff Zucker should be fired over this fiasco. It was his idea, and he should answer for it.