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Critics Not Very Impressed, Yet 14 Mil Viewers 2nd Night

September 18, 2009

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HOLLYWOOD, CA (RPRN) 09/18/09 — By Adam Shapiro

- Jay Leno's extended vacation after his departure from NBC's "The Tonight Show" came to an end last night with the debut of his new highly anticipated show, "The Jay Leno Show." The prime-time experiment, billed as perhaps the future of television opened very strongly, with 17.7 million viewers tuning in to witness the unscripted comedy welcome guest Jerry Seinfeld and a musical performance by Jay-Z, Kanye West and Rihanna. That compares to the roughly 5 million viewers that used to regularly watch "The Tonight Show" when Leno was at the helm. The show benefitted from curiosity by fans amidst months of relentless hype and lucked out with Kanye West's appearance. Leno took advantage of West's latest outburst at the MTV Video Music Awards by having a discussion with the rapper about his boorish actions, which included asking him how his late mother would have reacted if she'd seen what he had done.

Still, critics were lukewarm at best over the show's format and content. Los Angeles television critic Mary McNamara wrote, "sixteen minutes into the new ‘The Jay Leno Show,' it was difficult not to panic. This is the future of television? This wasn't even a good rendition of television past." Alessandra Stanley of the New York Times complained that, "the future of ‘The Jay Leno Show' is likely to look almost exactly like ‘The Tonight Show' past, so much ink has been devoted to describing how Mr. Leno's new show would depart from his old one that it was startling to see how little difference there was."

Despite the critics' take, Leno's opening numbers were a sign of encouragement for NBC executives, who are utilizing the show as a new vehicle to compete with the expensive scripted dramas of rival networks dominating the prime-time ratings. NBC, which has been in fourth place for the last four years among the leading four networks, has been scrutinized by the network television industry for moving Leno from late-night to prime-time. However, as with any gamble, the payoff could be huge for NBC. If Leno's show continues to perform on par with heavyweights such as CBS's "CSI" franchise, it could re-write the rules of prime-time network television and make NBC look like visionaries as the industry struggles to cut costs and make a transition to digital media.

"It's great to see Jay back on the air and doing his monologue," said Jeff Zucker, NBC Universal chief executive, adding that the success of the first show was "a great sign, clearly any advertisers who were part of last night is quite thrilled." With so much riding on "The Jay Leno Show," NBC is hoping that the ratings from last night foreshadow a switch from drama to comedy for viewers.

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