Dear Tina,
Well after regaling you with stories from all of my lowbrow adventures this past weekend, I promised I would turn my attention back where it belongs: you hiring me for your employ. I know it has been eleven days and normally my attention span lasts as long as a baby’s when you give it a tupperware lid so you can go to the bathroom. For those who may be reading this and do not watch a baby, that is not a long time. But I’m in this for the long haul. So I thought now would be a good time to weigh in on the controversy plaguing NBC Studios. It was reported that NBC has officially cancelled The Jay Leno Show in the 10/9c timeslot, or at least I think that’s what the E! News crawl reported during Sleepless in Seattle.
Even though NBC’s ratings have been in the tank for a few years now, I always valued NBC for its iconicity. NBC is television’s Chrysler Building. But when they announced plans to cancel all of their 10 pm programming in order to schedule The Jay Leno Show five nights a week I was appalled. It wasn’t five nights of Jay that irked me so, it was the idea of dedicating that much time to any one entity. Their solution to their tumbling ratings seemed like such a copout. Can you imagine if CBS changed their schedule so that every hour you were watching a program dedicated to criminology? Oh wait…
Many called the plan a “risky move” for NBC. Disagree. I thought it was a lazy move. Sure I can imagine how discouraging (and expensive) it would be to have to keep cancelling all of the new programming you introduce in the fall the very next spring, but that does not mean you grab Jay Leno by the collar on his way out the door, shrug, and say “eh, if it ain’t broke…move it to primetime.” I feel obliged now to turn my eyes toward the ceiling and say with great exasperation “I know it was more complicated than that.” I just get frustrated when I look at all the other major networks who are willing to put themselves out there year after year and take some risks and low and behold, the network that brought us Joe Millionaire is now number one. It’s like the Little Engine That Could except instead of bringing toys to the little boys and girls, it brought us Paula Abdul. NBC’s latest attempt at creative programming came in the form of combining the success of American Idol with the cultish popularity of Glee, resulting in The Sing Off. If you’re going to have a singing competition and enlist Ben Folds as one of the judges then I am going to watch a rerun of Hoarders.
There are so many talented writers out there with fresh ideas, just waiting for a green light, that the concept of turning television into a cost-effective business plan seems destructive to an industry that at its core is a creative industry. So it may not be a popular opinion at 30 Rockefellar Plaza, but I think the cancellation of The Jay Leno show is a good thing. It reinstilled my faith in Americans that when we get home from work we don’t just want to be talked at like we’re a bunch of opinionless mopes. As I said in my first post, we value our favorite television shows. The stories and characters we cherish mean as much to us as our favorite song (Forever by Chris Brown) or our favorite drink from Starbucks (water)! We grow nostalgic for the actors and relationships we see on TV and eagerly hold onto them for five or eight or thirty five seasons. I would like to point out though that no one was nostalgic for the old Knight Rider, so creating a modern version was a little misguided.
I hope everything works out for Jay, but more importantly I hope everything works out for Conan. I mean really he just got thrown under the bus during this whole charade. Here the guy is doing spectacularly in late late night television, young people adore him, and NBC executives think great, move the old guy out (who is also in first place) replace him with this buyont redhead and it will be nothing but smooth sailing as far as the eye can see. But then it wasn’t smooth and all of this rescheduling and fretting over what to do with Jay is crippling Conan’s ability to succeed as The Tonight Show host. All the while bruising the reputation of The Tonight Show as the gold standard in late night programming. Luckily for NBC Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien are such gracious personalities that they are managing all of this run around with humor and poise. We would all love to see a win win win situation but when it comes down to it there just are not enough hours in the night. Ask Carson Daley.
30 Rock Quote of the Day:
Liz: You’ve already made up your mind about this, haven’t you?
Jenna: Oh, you’re right, Liz! I should go for it!
Liz: You’re not even listening, are you? Poop. Monkey butt.
Jenna: No, you’re a good friend and thank you.
Dear Tina 