Tuesday, January 12, 2010

NBC’s prime time drama is back

Canada…but not the way they were expecting! When NBC (which is currently dead last among the big four TV networks) announced its plans of moving Jay Leno to the high profile 10:00 PM spot, many expressed their doubts. It was a bold move by a struggling network, hoping that a talk show would be able to draw much needed ratings while competing against very popular and well-established shows like all three “CSI” franchises, “Law and Order: SVU”, “Grey’s Anatomy” and others. Still, they went ahead with it and it was also announced that fellow funnyman Conan O’Brien was going to inherit Leno’s job hosting the legendary “The Tonight Show” at 11:35 PM.
 
Conan O'Brien While O’Brien was obviously the right choice for this job and did quite well competing against David Letterman (host of “The Late Show” on CBS), Leno’s show was a struggle from the get go. After a few months of being unable to capture the audience’s interest, NBC has now suddenly decided to pull the plug on “The Jay Leno Show”. But what to do with him, they don’t want Leno to disappear from the air!
 
The ‘solution’ they found turned out to be an annoyance not only for Leno, but for the three shows that come after his!!! They proposed that Leno would go between 11:35 PM and 12:05 AM (yes, just 30 minutes), then Conan at 12:05 AM, Jimmy Fallon (Conan’s replacement on “Late Night”) at 1:05 AM… and nobody even mentioned Carson Daly’s show “Last Call” (which is now airing at 1:35 AM), so I guess they’re saying ‘thank you for the memories’ to this gentleman.
 
O’Brien has just announced that he will not accept moving his show to 12:05 AM, which will surely cause him to leave the network. Good for him, as he’s going to get a ton of money from CBS, since they’re the ones changing the work conditions. That will probably allowed the clueless NBC executives to put their golden boy back in his 11:35 PM spot (from where it now becomes apparent he should’ve never left) and Fallon and Daly might be able to keep their original timeslots as well.
 
Conan, in the meantime, is rumoured to be heading for FOX. I will follow him wherever he goes, he’s the funniest of the whole pack.
 
But well, as Leno wisely pointed out a couple of days ago: “NBC wanted drama back at 10:00 PM. They sure have it these days!”. Another zinger I liked from him was: “Do you know what NBC stands for? Never Believe your Contract!” :-)
 
image
Conan O’Brien and Jay Leno
 
 
Argentina
El drama está de vuelta a las 10:00 PM en la cadena NBC… pero no de la manera que ellos quisieran! Cuando NBC (que está última entre las cuatro cadenas grandes de TV) anunció sus planes de mover a Jay Leno al horario de las 10:00 PM, no pocos expresaron sus dudas. Era una jugada muy arriesgada de una cadena que estaba en problemas, con la esperanza de que el show pudiera ‘robarle’ audiencia a shows muy populares y muy bien establecidos como las tres franquicias de “CSI”, “Law and Order: SVU”, “Grey’s Anatomy” y otros. De todos modos lo intentaron y al mismo tiempo anunciaron que Conan O’Brien heredaría el lugar de Leno al frente del “The Tonight Show” a las 11:35 PM.
 
Si bien O’Brien era obviamente la mejor elección para ese trabajo y ha competido bastante bien contra David Letterman (host del “The Late Show” por CBS), el show de Leno penó desde el principio. Luego de unos meses de no poder capturar el interés de la audiencia, NBC ha decidido de golpe que va a levantar el programa de Leno, “The Jay Leno Show”. Pero qué hacer con él, no quieren que Leno desaparezca de la pantalla!
 
Jay Leno La ‘solución’ que encontraron terminó siendo una molestia no sólo para Leno, sino que también para los tres shows que vienen despues!!! Propusieron que Leno esté entre las 11:35PM y las 12:05 AM (sí, sólo 30 minutos), luego Conan a las 12:05 AM, Jimmy Fallon (reemplazante de Conan en el “Late Night”) a la 1:05 AM… y nadie siquiera mencionó a Carson Daly y su show “Last Call” (que está a la 1:35 AM), así que calculo que a éste último le dirán “gracias por todo, cerrá la puerta al salir”.
 
O’Brien acaba de anunciar que no va a aceptar mover su show a las 12:05 AM, lo que seguramente cause que se vaya de NBC. Buena movida, porque la cadena le va a tener que dar un montón de dinero, ya que ellos son los responsables por la finalización del contrato. Esto seguramente les permita a los confundidos directivos de NBC poner a su protegido (Leno) de nuevo a las 11:35 PM (un horario del que ahora se pone claro nunca debió haber salido) y Fallon y Daly tal vez puedan conservar sus trabajos.
 
Sobre Conan, mientras tanto, hay rumores de que iría a FOX. Si es así, lo miraré en esa cadena, porque es el más gracioso de todos los que mencioné aquí (también me gusta mucho Craig Ferguson).
 
Pero bueno, como Leno muy bien indicó hace un par de noches: “NBC quería tener drama a las 10:00PM. Ya lo tienen, estamos todos furiosos!”. Después comentó: “Sabés que significa NBC? Never Believe your Contract!”  (Nunca creas en lo que dice tu contrato) :-)
 

4 comments:

  1. Que tu protegido te tire en la cara lo de Never Believe... que queres que te diga.
    Yo le doy una patada en el cola.

    ReplyDelete
  2. you have to watch Jimmy Kimmel from last night...

    ReplyDelete
  3. I did. I also watched Letterman and O'Brien tonight. Letterman was particularly virulent, he attacked the head executive from NBC at a personal level, calling him dopey, idiot, etc., then made a little fun of Jay Leno (with the squeaky voice and everything) and his top 10 was again dedicated to that executive. Conan had Ricky Gervais as a guest and they both talked about the situation in O'Brian's famous self-deprecating stlye, until Gervais said 'well, let's go crazy, because what are they going to do, f***ng fire you?' and everything went downhill from then on...

    I'm going to watch a little of Craig Ferguson's show now.

    ReplyDelete

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