The Jay Leno Show

This seems to me to be a program birthed in an insane asylum. Who would watch this man five nights a week in primetime? He is bland and unfunny, and now they're sticking the future of their network and prime time on his shoulders. It's like asking Quasimodo to take over for Atlas. The entire idea that this is the magic bullet for NBC's woes is clearly a perfect display of gilded California economics. Nowhere else in America would someone get to propose this ratings-apocolypse in-waiting and expect to have a job to go to the next Monday

On that note, I'll be watching tonight. Same instinct that makes me peer out the window at a car crash as I drive by.

And had consistently the highest rated late night talk show. Since he's a big hit with the older crowd generally they'll probably appreciate getting to watch him an hour and a half earlier. I know my grandparents are planning on watching the show and appreciate that they don't have to stay up late to see it anymore.

I'm no fan of Leno, but I do watch him... whatever mood I'm in, I can always watch an episode, turns the brain off for 30 minutes. I'm guessing millions of other viewers also like the same "quality", and I can't blame them.

I don't see how this show could be a failure in ratings.

I look forward to ignoring his show on a very regular basis.

Oh, well if he is highest rated then he must be funny. Even if the oldsters love the heck out of him, they do not buy things. They do not buy things that advertisers fond of the 10 pm prime town hour usually like to sell.

I'm not arguing that he's funny, I'm just saying that he got better ratings than Letterman and than Conan is now getting. NBC has had a black hole of suck in the ratings in their 10PM slot so I have a hard time imagining how the Jay Leno talk show could be worse.

Will his interviews be as excriciating to watch on this new show as his last?

If the show's like the promos and consist of 90% "Americans R uneducated and dumb!" question-and-answer bits, I don't see being able to watch more than 5 minutes without crying. The promos are soul-shattering.

Curiosity will make me watch at least a couple of episodes, just like I did with Fallon. Also, the weird promo for this with Fred Armisen that they've been showing in theaters - the one where they think they accidentally kill a guy in a hit and run and try to cover it up - was surprisingly dark and funny, hinting at the old Leno, before he was corrupted. But I figure that's got to be because of Armisen and maybe some SNL/Lonely Island writers, and the new show won't have those guys to draw on every day.

Not surprisingly....holy shit this is terrible so far.

Ugh. I'm out. There is bland , and then there is The Jay Leno show. Ben Silverman must be living through some of the worst minutes of his life right now.


I found it so dull and devoid of meaning that I began to stare off into space within the first minute.


I am now going to watch Roland Emmerich's GODZILLA instead. That is not hyperbole, those are my actual plans



I said earlier that I'd watch this the way I glance at a car crash when I drive past one. I guess thats the same thing I just went through. Being alive on September 14th 2009 I took a peek at the debut of the Jay Leno Show. However, it was not even an interesting car crash. More like a fender bender that disabled the engine and wrecked the car, but no one needed to call an ambulance, and there are no stretchers in sight. On that note, I wont slow down as I drive past for this one.

I'll take use this moment to take my leave of you. I'm off to watch the adventures of Dr. Nick Totopolous - Worm Scientist(C)

EDIT: like the poster below me says, actually the set looks like the interior of a juke box. That is the *perfect* description. I keep getting the uneasy feeling that Jay is minature when I watch it.

Set looks like they're shooting inside a Jukebox.

This is awkward.

This show makes his stint on the Tonight Show look cutting-edge. So far it's the worst kind of lowest common denominator pap. The "60 Minutes" demographic may well lap this up, but 5 hours a week of this nonsense would be unendurable.

If this is what we're going to have to endure as opposed to hour-long scripted drama (which, admittedly, mostly sucked) I can go ahead and yank out the satellite dish, and stick to Hulu and Netflix.

Keep in mind that the 60 Minutes (Sixty Minutes) demographic is not the coveted 18-to-whatever viewership that advertisers crave as they are they are the type most receptive to sales pitchs and with the largest ammount of disposable income.

You cannot keep a five night a week prime time talk show on life support with Ads for denture cream and the Hover-round

I was worried about what Jay coming back would do to Conan. I think Conan's gonna be just fine. I hope Conan's gonna be just fine. That whole show was completely completely terrible.

What weak segment to end a show on. Any show. Times 10 for it being a first show.

Awww he made Kanye cry....


Jay what a pussy. I was starting to panic that Conan was in trouble, but I think Jay just did him a favor. Conan, if you're reading this forum (come on I know), just bring back all the bids from your old show now. Counter Jay with the Bear. Oh you know which bear I'm talking about.

Seeing Oprah for 1 min rejuvenated my interest in Conan making fun of her.

I wasn't worried about Leno, I knew he'd just do the same old tired crap he did on the Tonight Show.

This episode was a white hot mess. Seinfeld pretty much nailed it when he joked about Jay not being able to land a bigger "First" guest. I'm not one who believes the idea of a variety show airing five nights a week in primetime can't be successful, because it can. But, this show looked tired from the start.

If you want rough and funny, there is only one viable answer


Craig Ferguson


since he has found his groove, he never fails to crack me up

I like Jay Leno.

But then, I'm not cool and edgy. *shrug*

Well, that's for fucking sure.

Dick riding Letterman and Conan is nothing to be smug about. Especially Conan of late.

I'm sorry I couldn't hear your witty retort. Could you please remove Leno's dick from your mouth before answering next time?

Speaking of dicks in mouths, I work for a NBC affiliate and holy fuckshit, all we have been doing for the past 2 months is blowing Jay and his new show. And last night, it was just goddamn embarrassing.

I didn't get to catch the show cause we were busy greasing up for a 9:15 handy for the man, but what bits I saw seemed to be just like old Jay. The worst thing, by far (besides all the new work it's created for me, but I'm selfish), was looking at the TV listings to plan out by watchings for the fall. That huge fucking block just being taken up by a single show for two years...goddamn, NBC. Fuck you.

This.

I just thought it was funny that you think not liking Leno is some kind of hipster movement. And you started with the smugness. I was just making fun of that.

Holy shit, I love your sig, Matchstick. One of the best Pavement songs of all time, my friend.

Addressing Leno apologists: Look, by all accounts Leno is a pretty nice guy. And there's ample video evidence out there from his pre-Tonight Show days to show that he was genuinely funny once. But that Jay's been dead since he starting guest hosting for Johnny. There's no need to compare him to Conan - compare him to himself and he comes up short.

I'll grant that Conan seems to be missing something ineffable since the transition, though I still like him better than I ever liked Leno. But Letterman? He's come back to life in the last three years or so. His show will never be the anarchist playground that it was when he first started at NBC, but when Dave veers off script to rant about meaningless drivel, it's just great as always.

Oh, I don't think Conan's in any trouble. I realize Leno's ratings are good, but Conan's aren't exactly hurting. Plus, Leno hasn't been funny since Conan was probably in grade school.

It's just that people make it really hard to feel good about liking Jay Leno. I know, I know .... after last night's show, HE'S making it really hard to feel good about liking him. I don't get the intense hostility towards Jay is all.

For the record, I'm a huge Conan fan, have been since I was a teenager, but he has just not been doing it for me for the past year.

I tolerate Letterman when I'm absolutely forced to, but his irrational fans makes it hard for me to regard him with anything but contempt, quite frankly.

A point that I want to make that I didn't even realize until last night--some of the black dominated message boards that I post on were downright celebrating the return of Jay, which is a stark contrast to nearly every other forum that I post on. And yet, Leno is a ratings getter, and contrary to popular belief, it's not just old people who are watching. Never thought that perhaps Jay is the Bill Clinton of late night.

I think Letterman is the smartest of the hosts, and he's hugely influential - which is where all of the love comes from. He's a great interviewer. But I really don't watch him much these days. I actually record Conan and Fallon every night, and then fast-forward to what I want to see. I like to watch Fallon because he seems like he actually loves doing his show. But I grew up on Letterman, so he's my favorite. Leno actually does seem like a nice dude. More interesting than his show. I just could never get behind the way he interviews. But he is hugely successful. As much as I dig Conan, it was really pretty dumb of NBC to boot Leno out of that spot before his time was up. So it seems. Not that I mind at all, of course.

Anyway, Jack Hannah's segment on Letterman last week was hilarious - if anyone can find it.

Are you going by Leno's last night numbers? Because this was a first show which would have large number of viewers, but seems premature to determine what kind of ratings he will get after the first week or so.
If you're just referring to his old Tonight Show numbers, forget I mentioned it.

For the last time, that's not what happened. Leno agreed to retire/hand over The Tonight Show, then bitched about how he was forced into it, then started making noises about how he wanted to continue doing late night. Do I disagree with NBC's decision? Yeah. Was it a smart move? Yet to be seen. But let's not act like it was the big bad network who took Leno's ball and told him to go home when they made the transition deal in 2004.

Yeah, old numbers in general.

Dave also outclasses everyone by a country mile when it comes to musical guest.

I usually catch the tail end of the the musical guest when switching over to watch Ferguson. And Dave does seem to get the best out of all the shows.

Ditto. Some will quip with a "Well, he's just not funny" answer. But most likely, people still hold it against him for "stealing" The Tonight Show from Letterman back in '91/'92. A move that shocked even Carson.

Well, they didn't want to lose Conan. Talks started. Seems a little bootish to me. Happy for Conan, though. And I have high hopes for him. Everyone was waiting for him to fail the first time 'round too.

I don't have any sort of "intense hatred" towards Leno, I just thought last nights show was God awful boring. I used to chuckle at a couple of his jokes in his monologue, and last night I didn't crack a smile. The only thing I liked at all were the headlines.

I liked the headlines, as I always have, and sue me but I laughed at the idiotic Cheaters skit. The ridiculous existance of "Cheaters" and Joey Greco in all of his monotone glory is enough to get a laugh out of me...

This show got huge numbers, by the way.

Saw that, wondering after last night's showing if there will be a huge dip in tonight's numbers.

With it going head to head with the finale of Big Brother? Damn right the numbers will plummet.

Go Kevin!

12.1 rating, 19 share. The Hollywood Reporter article talks about how it's a higher number than Conan's Tonight Show debut, which doesn't seem exactly fair considering the different time slots.