Tonight's the night

Tonight's the night Jay Leno returns to his old spot at 11:35.  Drama comes back to 10 p.m., which is sure to make NBC affiliates happy as they hopefully get back viewers for their lucrative local newscasts at 11.

Pundits are predicting that Jay's show, which will surely have big audiences this first week, will eventually regain its #1 spot in late night from David Letterman on CBS.  But they don't expect "The Tonight Show" to ever return to audience levels of even two years ago.

The days of big audiences for late night may be gone, and it's not due to NBC's bungling of their late night changes.  Viewers at 11:35 have so many good options beyond the talk shows now -- quality engaging dramas on cable, combined with time-shifted viewing via DVR.  It's a whole new ballgame at 11:35.

Leno's loyal viewers will come back, despite the beating his reputation took because of NBC's clumsy handling of Conan O'Brien.  And Conan wasn't ousted by Leno, by the way.  He lost his show because he just didn't pull the audience the network and the stations needed.  Maybe if all those vocal Coco loyalists had been watching his show regularly, his numbers would have been better and it would be Jay having time to play on Twitter instead of Conan.

As for me, I plan to check out Jay's monologue tonight, to see what he has to say about the whole debacle.  When his first guest, loony Sarah Palin comes on, I'll click back over to Dave, even if his guest is just the sneezing monkey.

Comments

[Bambe Levine, Bambe Levine Public Relations]

We saw the show last night and to tell you the truth, it all seemed boring and the same...not much different from his 10 o'clock mistake. I think we're ready for something new but I do want to see Adam Lambert meet Sarah Palin tonight. .We were actually getting into Nightline again and we just don't get David Letterman. He's caustic, stupid and overrated...

And why doesn't Sarah Palin go away?

[David Reich]

Bambe, I agree on all points except I like Letterman. It's his caustic humor that makes him fun.

[David Reich]

Wayne Friedman, in his TV Watch column today at MediaPost, has an interesting take... http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=123499

[D gowns]

hey that wasn't so bad. isn't it? :D

[Norman Underwood]

i saw his show too. yeah it's been boring. oh that's cool Adam Lambert meet Sarah Palin.. awesome!.