NBC Changes Their Name To NBL (For "Nothing But Leno")

NBC, in a desperate grab to keep their late-night ratings champ from going elsewhere when he leaves The Tonight Show in six months, have announced that Jay Leno will be hosting his own primetime talk show, five nights a week. His new show will take over the 9:00pm slot on weeknights. For NBC, this is a great coup, as they get to keep Leno at NBC and out of the hands of competitors. Also, they will save millions of dollars by continuing to pay Leno's salary and maintaining his show budget, rather than plowing money into scripted programming, which costs up to three times as much an episode of The Tonight Show.

Unfortunately, for us, the TV viewers, we get stuck with five nights of Leno in primetime.

That's all fine and good, if you like Leno, but I personally haven't seen 16 of his shows in the 16 years he's been on the air. However, every year, I watch at least 16 episodes of Law & Order, a show that just happens to air in the new "Leno Slot."

And that's where we're going to get fucked. NBC is essentially turning into Fox, in that they'll only offer 10 hours of non-Leno programming during the week, as opposed to the 15 they're airing now. That's five shows that will have to go. And they'll do that by either canceling poor performers (like Law & Order, which nearly didn't come back two seasons ago) or by not making any new shows and moving everything else around to fit Leno's schedule.

I would guess they'll simply cut shows to make room for Leno, and then not make any new shows, because that's why they kept him in the first place: to eliminate that cost. If I was handicapping, I would say the shows that are gone (and NBC has helped me out by already canceling some of these) would be ER, Knight Rider, Lipstick Jungle, My Own Worst Enemy, and probably Law & Order. Three of those already air in Leno Slots, so you wouldn't even have to change the schedule. Works out good for everyone really...

Except fans of those shows. Obviously, I'm a Law & Order fan, and I actually liked My Own Worst Enemy, which joins Raines, Journeyman, Bionic Woman, and Heist in the shows-that-I-liked-which-NBC-canceled-in-less-than-a-season pile.

But fuck what I like. As long as NBC gets to keep Leno, we should all be happy.

Aren't you?