So NBC took a gamble at the start of the new season by moving Jay Leno from his late night slot into one of their primetime slots. At the time, it made sense as it would be cheaper to produce than another show or 5, and Leno had a built in audience.
Fast forward a few months, and it just hasn't worked out as well as intended. So NBC is in quite the situation with their line up.
They have decided to move Leno back to his 11:30 slot, but only for half an hour, Conan will be moved to midnight, but he may not stick around with the network.
So that's the late night stuff, but now they are left with 5 hours of television, and as far as I know, very little content to fill it with. So what does NBC do?
Quote:
Gaspin: "Jay and Conan and Jimmy were incredibly gracious and professional. They all said they understood the difficult situation I was in."
Gaspin being much more candid than any NBC exec I can remember. He just doesn't have much he can tell us.
Gaspin: "There probably wasn't much they could do" to change Leno's show. "They were doing the show Jay is comfortable doing. "
Gaspin says Leno Show performance at 10 "was not an issue for the network, really," and entirely a problem for affiliate late local news.
"I'm not going to talk much beyond that (about Conan staying), because I have a fluid situation." -Gaspin
He has proposed Leno Show at 11:35, Conan's Tonight at 12:05, Late Night w/Fallon at 1:05, but "talks are still ongoing."
Gaspin: While Leno show "performed to our expectations, it did not meet our affiliates' needs."
Gaspin confirms that Jay Leno Show leaves primetime Feb. 12.
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