Jay Leno & NBC are about to screw us
December 10, 2008 by Lance Carter
Wow. Can you believe this?
Jay Leno is going to take up the Monday-Friday 10pm slot on NBC starting fall 2009.
Not only are we as actors facing a huge drop in roles right now because of the fear of a strike and the studios not producing because of the economy, we now have to deal with this? Losing 5 hours of network airtime? Yes, I know some of it is already dedicated to news magazines…but believe me, those aren’t going anywhere. We are losing 5 hours of scripted programming.
I know NBC is in the toilet and the Head of Programming Ben Silverman would rather ski in Utah right now (who can blame him) than work on this mess of a schedule… but this is just a huge blow to actors on both coasts. Not only actors but everyone in the industry. 
Silverman gave us Knight Rider (CANCELLED) and My Own Worst Enemy (CANCELLED) and I’m sure was instrumental in bringing the new Ryan Seacrest produced Mama’s Boys to the 10pm hour.
And wasn’t it Jeff Zucker, President of NBC who was quoted last year as saying that they didn’t need a pilot season? Guess what, yeah you do. You guys got yourself in this mess and because you are trying to save face and your jobs, your sticking it to the creative community.
Now, the total cost of a weeks worth of bland Leno programming will be about 2 million. A weeks worth of original scripted programming would blow that out of the water… so I understand it economically. But will they really benefit from this?
Let’s look at it this way: A hit TV show will make them money for years and years. How much do you think ER has raked in? How much do you think the DVD’s of ER are bringing in? They don’t pay actors hardly anything for DVD’s so they have to be loving that. Would you buy a box set of Leno DVD’s? I won’t wait for the answer.
I have never really been a big fan of Jay Leno… I mean he seems like a nice guy but I truly hope this experiment fails. But really, what is their definition of failure for this? Leno said himself that he doesn’t expect to beat CSI… so is it second place? Fourth? I can only think after a year of coming in fourth place that the affiliates will be kicking and screaming that he isn’t bringing in the viewers for their news casts. Does that warrant a failure?
I hope so.
EW weighs in on why NBC is bringing Leno to primetime | Daily Actor: Where Actors Go To Promote Themselves! on Wed, 10th Dec 2008 4:44 pm
[...] I wrote here, NBC bringing Jay Leno to primetime is a total game-changing [...]
Jay Leno’s Move Hints at Future of Prime-Time TV | Daily Actor: Where Actors Go To Promote Themselves! on Sat, 13th Dec 2008 3:32 pm
[...] Click here for my article on this SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “Jay Leno’s Move Hints at Future of Prime-Time TV”, url: “http://www.dailyactor.com/2008/12/jay-leno%e2%80%99s-move-hints-at-future-of-prime-time-tv/” }); [...]