In what should be described as one of the biggest cluster messes in a long time, NBC has left themselves in a big pile of mess, with the announcement that Jay Leno is going back to late night. It has been widely reported last week that NBC was looking to shakeup things by moving Mr. Leno back to his original 11:30 slot, while moving current "Tonight Show" host Conan O'Brien to 12:00, and moving "Late Night" host Jimmy Fallon to 1:00. Today such a move was announced by the peacock network.
"The Jay Leno Show" will end on February 11th, just before the Winter Olympics start. This will give two weeks for the Leno team to pull together his new/old 11:30 time slot. It will also give Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Fallon time to put together their shows as well.
The big question in all of this is one thing. Out of the three talents, who is going to be sticking around? During a press event in Los Angeles Jeff Gaspin, chairman of NBC Universal Television and Entertainment acknowledged that none of the three host had signed onto the proposed idea. Mr. Gaspin stated, “My goal right now is to keep Jay, Conan and Jimmy as part of our late-night lineup. As much as I’d like to tell you we have a done deal, we know that’s not true.”
"Talks are ongoing," Gaspin added.
Gaspin said that talks with the three host will continue on Monday.
The main reason for this move was dude to the fact that the Leno show was a very poor lead-in for local affilates, which in turn was a poor lead-in for the current "Tonight Show" with Conan O'Brien.
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