Jay Leno Kills Primetime

Late night host lands new gig.

There's much about the new Jay Leno deal that we don't understand. First and foremost, Leno's comedic pull. Though well-intentioned, his jokes are about as tasty as three-day-old vegan brownies. So why the networks were fighting over him to begin with was a bit befuddling.

Second, to accomodate His Cranius Grandus, NBC has decided to do away with a third of its primetime programming. Leno will do his show at 10pm on weeknights. Though Leno may be able to bring in the grandma crowd (who might actually be fans of his brand of Uncle Joe humor) with his earlier time slot, it seems unlikely he'll be able to compete with the 10pm programming on the other networks.

Then there's Conan O'Brien who seems like he's being forced to play the normal sibling to Leno's "Other Sister". A source close to O'Brien said the deal was great for them. "We're really excited because the alternative is him leaving angry and going to another network, competing against Conan."

Doesn't sound like much of a choice to us. Giving up on primetime to save money and keep the not funny host while sticking it to the funny one? We'll see how much longer head honcho Jeff Zucker lasts at NBC.