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The Late Shift 2 - Electric Boogaloo

I never cared much for Jay Leno. I always felt like David Letterman got a raw deal when Johnny Carson retired, and I felt like it was entirely the fault of both NBC and Leno. Dave seems to have done pretty well at CBS, though, and I think he's enjoying himself — so perhaps it wasn't such a bad deal for him after all.

In the Late Night Wars volume two, the ones who are looking like assholes are — once again — NBC and Leno. Conan is going to come out of this smelling like a rose, and falling on his sword by effectively resigning from The Tonight Show was probably the best — and classiest — move he could have made. But unfortunately, it seems this is exactly what NBC wanted him to do — either that or he pissed them off. It looks like they've forced his hand either way. Dave is, once again, sitting pretty... and hopefully laughing all the way to the bank.

I've got to wonder what's going through the minds of the NBC executives sometimes. This is such a disastrous move for the network all the way around. Moving Leno to the 11:35 spot is going to create a hole in the programming schedule regardless of whether Conan stays or not and regardless of whether The Tonight Show moves to 12:05 or not. I'd love to know where NBC is going to find late-season replacement programming — and the network has already proven it can only do one reality show, so that inexpensive option is out too. Moving The Tonight Show to 12:05 is probably going to kill the show, which is just plain stupid since it's been a staple of late night since 1953. And since it's such a long climb from fourth place, you'd think they'd be putting a little more thought and effort behind their decisions... especially as television in general becomes less and less relevant.

At some level I don't think it matters a lot, because a majority of NBC is now owned by Comcast, and it's just a matter of time before Comcast realizes it's bought one ugly dog and starts charging other cable providers to carry NBC programming. The other cable providers will balk, NBC programming will get dropped, and eventually, USA, SyFy, Bravo, and all the other NBC properties will follow. NBC will fall to fifth place (surpassed by The CW!) and eventually disappear altogether or become a paid-for cable network like HBO.

Crystal balls aside, though... it's going to be interesting to see how this resolves. And the more I think about it, the more I think NBC has basically killed The Tonight Show even if they don't move it to 12:05. I just don't see how Leno — whose new show has been a stinker from the beginning — can bring anything good to The Tonight Show at this point.

Johnny Carson must be rolling over in his grave.