Sunday, January 10, 2010

Press tour: An NBC/critics showdown over Leno and Conan, or a letdown?

Over at NJ.com, I have my first real TCA-related post of this press tour up, in which I preview the NBC executive session later today and worry that it's not going to live up to the bloodbath we're all hyping it into.

6 comments:

  1. I suggest a session of "Really? With Every Television Critic Present."

    "You thought putting Leno on at 10 PM was a good idea? Really?"

    "And you thought Conan wouldn't mind being bumped back a half hour? Really?"

    You guys can go for a good 20 minutes on that.

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  2. I look forward to your tweets, should be an interesting session. Even if they go with lots of "no comment" or "I don't know"'s there will surely be some little gems like the "It was always Ben's plan..." from the summer tour.

    And I second Matt's suggestion for a session of "Really?"

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  3. One question I have about trying to do a quick shift earlier rather than later: can a hastily-thrown together 10 PM lineup really do better than Leno? NBC might be counting on using its Olympic coverage to rebuild some audience for local late news and promo its new lineup at the same time, but it may not be enough without any eye-attracting new shows to showcase at 10.

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  4. I hate the loss of 5 primetime hours as much as anyone, but NBC's best move here would be to extend primetime by an hour and air Leno at 7pm, offering him as a replacement to syndicated shows. I'm sure some markets would foolishly continue to air their own choices, and they would be proven wrong. Much as I hate Leno, I would watch him over Access Hollywood any day- and I'm then on NBC right as primetime starts.

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  5. The journalists will ask the questions 50,000 times each but I doubt the executives will announce anything official or even answer direct questions about it. They don't want that stuff to over shadow their fantastic Olympic coverage coming up next month.

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  6. I like Jay Leno, I really do. I watched him on The Tonight Show. But he really needs to go away now. He gave up The Tonight Show, granted under NBC pressure, he tried this 10pm show and it didn't work. It's completely unfair for Conan to have to be pushed back so Leno can try what may be another failure. Jay needs to retire with some dignity and let Conan and Fallon try to rebuild NBC late night.

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