Jay Leno - The Future of Network Television?

For my first post I decided it might be a good idea to ease myself into the whole blogging thing, so I thought, "Hey, why not tackle the future of television?". You know, the simple stuff. For those of you who don't know this past Monday at 10 PM marked the premiere of The Jay Leno Show, NBC's guinea pig show to test if a late night talk show is still successful even if it airs during primetime. Though the network claimed to have rebooted and re-conceptualized the show for primetime it still follows the standard late night talk show template (monologue, interviews, then musical guest) , only now it's on at 10 instead of 11:30. Before I get further into a discussion of rating, money, and what both those things mean for NBC, here is a promo clip to give you an idea of what the show is all about incase you haven't watched it yet, or if you're like me, you don't want to.

With the rise of basic cable and the invention of the DVR, network television has had a rough couple of years, especially NBC. Under ex-chairman of NBC entertainment Ben Silverman, the network has had trouble producing hit television shows with high ratings, and as such, it consistently lands at the bottom of the four major broadcast networks. With it's poor finances, NBC needed a way to cut costs, ASAP. And along came Jay Leno, nearing the end of his run as host of The Tonight Show. The average one hour drama costs 3 million per episode to produce; Leno's show costs 2 million per week. It doesn't take a genius to see why the suits at NBC thought The Jay Leno Show was worth a shot.

Jump ahead five months and here we are after the first week of The Jay Leno Show. Quickly, before I start discussing rating and demographics, I want to recommend this website, which has a great explanation of the way television ratings are calculated. The show premiered to a massive 18.4 million people and 5.3/13 adults 18-49 rating. While a good number of people actually tuned in to watch the show, 60% of those people were over 50, which is not a demographic that advertisers are willing to shell out tons of cash to reach. Tuesday and Wednesday produced the expected drop in viewers but Thursday night yielded the most interesting ratings of the week. Leno slipped even further to 8.4 million and a 2.7 adults 18-49 rating. Though Leno still aired opposite repeats in the 10 o'clock slot, Thursday was the first night that all of the networks, minus ABC, aired new shows from 8-10. This is important when considering how Leno's ratings will fair in the coming months when the other networks bring back their fall shows. I suspect many people may have used the 10-11 time slot to watch shows that they DVRed earlier in the night instead of watching what the networks programmed at 10 o'clock.

Ultimately, one week is not enough time to call a show a failure, or even a success, based on ratings. It'll be interesting to see how Leno holds up against the new and returning dramas on the other networks. If his ratings continue to free fall, will Leno be able to bring in the kind of advertising money that a scripted dramas bring in, and ultimately make his show turn a profit? So far, only one thing is certain: NBC is saving money where other broadcast networks simply can't.