On Monday night former "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno made his much-ballyhooed debut in the 10 PM EST/9 PM CST time slot. Two days later - and despite some ratings decline in his second outing - Leno's bosses are still crowing about his early success. How Leno-happy is the NBC brass? Here's the early (and off-the-record) word from an insider.
On Ratings:
"We're very pleased with where we are. Jay's cornered all the big demos, and at this early date he is unquestionably the highest-rated late-night host in prime-time. Granted, he's had some very big guests this week - Jerry Seinfeld, Kanye West, Tom Cruise. And next week's lineup - Jim Carrey, Brad Pitt, Megan Fox, Secretary of State Clinton, Serena Williams, Billy Mays (pre-tape), Pope Benedict and ET - is just as strong. So we like the direction we're headed."
On Jay's Importance To The Network:
"There's no question that we have a lot riding on Jay's success; five nights a week is a major commitment. But we are NOT putting all our eggs in the Jay basket. This network has a lot of assets: Howie Mandel, David Hasselhoff, those fat people on Biggest Loser. So some of the things I'm reading on blogs about [NBC's dependence on] Jay are just crazy. For instance: we are NOT planning to freeze Jay's head after he dies so we can thaw him out for a future show. Although we're confident Cryogenic Jay would hold his own against CSI: Gattica, the economics of something like that make no sense in the present climate. Especially this far in advance."
On NBC's Support For Conan:
"We are 100% behind Conan as host of the Tonight Show. As we learned with Jay, it takes a long time for a new Tonight host to build an audience - especially when there's competition, even from his own network. We are certainly interested in helping Conan improve his numbers. But one thing we are not going to do is ask him to tone down his comedy or be more like Jay in any way. Our position is completely hands-off. I mean, if Conan does decide to color his hair gray and have chin-extension surgery, that'll be completely his choice. And we'll back him 1000% if that is indeed what he chooses to do. And the same holds true for Black Andy Richter."
On Opposition To Jay Within NBC Ranks:
"Was everyone behind the decision to give Jay the 10PM slot? Of course not. But the rumors you read are, again, silly. It is NOT true that the corpses of Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon rose from their graves on Monday night and began moving in the direction of Jay's studio. NBC guards didn't fire on them, and we certainly didn't film parts of their agonizing death-walk so we could later re-edit the footage into an "America's Standing Up For Jay" ad campaign. That would be ridiculous. But I should point out that neither of those men have worked for NBC for a very long time, and are certainly not privy to the same research as those of us on the inside."
On Optimism About The New Fall Schedule:
"We're very positive about the new fall shows. We've been fourth-place network for four seasons running, but we really believe five is our lucky number. We think that what we're offering - five nights of prime-time Jay, seven nights of Saturday Night Live, between 12 and 40 hours a week of Law & Order - is a breed apart from what the other networks are delivering. Also, we are this close to re-signing Mr. T. Fingers crossed."
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