Leno or Lame-o

Last week, I thought I would jump the gun and make some predictions about the success or failure of the new Jay Leno program on NBC at 10 PM eastern time. I was beaten to the process by just about everyone except the elementary school Weekly Reader if it still exists.

The thrust of all of it was dramatic television shows (i.e CSI, NCIS, Law and Order, et al) cost about $3 million dollars an hour to produce. Television audiences are fragmenting due to other choices (i.e. cable, DVRing and TiVoing). Advertisers are unwilling to pay top dollar for diminishing audiences, so, therefore dramatic series television may become greatly diminished by reality programming, Dateline type programs and less expensive programming like the Jay Leno Show. It is no secret that NBC has said we can be #4 in the 10 PM time slot because our product is significantly cheaper to produce and make a lot of money. I suspect some people think it is unamerican to strive to be anything less than #1, but it does make economic sense to lose the war and have the most money in the bank. NBC has been quite candid about their strategy and maybe it will work for them.

However, my beef is with my intellectual compatriots who began sniping at the Leno show from its inception last Monday night. "It's not very good, it's lame, it's disappointing," are some of the things I've heard.

Granted, it is all of those things if you believe that over the summer Jay went to Lourdes and stuck his wit into the water. Did you expect he'd become Jack Benny? George Carlin? The Python all rolled up into one?

No, he's Jay Leno. The guy who clearly won late night for the last 15 years. The truth is he is still Jay Leno who is mediocre at best but has done a fine job of casting himself as everyman who does a yeoman job night after night. He is what you've known and what you'll get. He is where he was and where he'll be.

Get used to it.

Again.