It’s official: Leno to leave 10 p.m. slot

PASADENA, Calif. - Acknowledging that NBC's affiliate stations were close to open revolt over bad ratings from its 10 p.m. Jay Leno Show, NBC Universal Entertainment chairman Jeff Gaspin yesterday confirmed reports of a late-night shakeup at the network.

"In some cases, stations that had the No. 1 news ranking in their markets fell to No. 3," Gaspin told the nation's TV critics at their winter meeting. "When smaller affiliates got their November book numbers last month, the drumbeat started getting louder and louder, and many . . . started talking about preemption."

NBC, producing the Leno show for as little as one-sixth the cost of scripted dramas, was making good money despite a 30 percent drop in ratings. But the weaker lead-in to their 11 o'clock news profit center was killing individual stations, and if they chose to run their own programming, rather than Leno, the network profit would disappear.

Gaspin emphasized that no deals had been signed, but said that all three late-night hosts - Leno, Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Fallon - had been "incredibly gracious and professional" in discussions about moving Leno back to 11:35 p.m. for a half-hour weeknight show, and shifting The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien to 12:05 a.m. and Late Night With Jimmy Fallon to 1:05. "They all said they understood the difficult position I was in."

The network's abandonment of its bold experiment to "strip" the Leno show weeknights at 10 would come in March, after the Feb. 12-28 Winter Olympics, Gaspin said. He was not specific about replacement shows for the hour. "We're working on that now. I'll wait till the very last second to decide, until I'm told listings are due and ads have to go to print."

Dateline episodes, Law & Order, Friday Night Lights, even reruns, are all possibilities, he said. NBC also has a couple of new dramas that could be ready soon.

Eventually, but probably not till fall, Gaspin said, the network would replace the current weekly five hours of Leno with newsmagazine episodes, reality programming and dramas. "We would net at least two more hours of scripted programming" each week, he said.

Angela Bromstad, president of primetime entertainment, outlined an ambitious development slate from which those shows would emerge, citing pilot orders from such top TV producers as J.J. Abrams, Jerry Bruckheimer and David E. Kelley. Taking a page from CBS, which premiered NCIS: Los Angeles to big ratings this fall, the network is also working with Law & Order big daddy Dick Wolf on Law & Order: Los Angeles, Bromstad said. "He calls it 'Lola.' "

Reports that the TV creative community was so angry about the original Leno move to 10 p.m. that it would not do business with NBC were "over-stated," she said.

Bromstead and Gaspin, installed in their posts last year, demonstrated none of the swagger and bravado of their predecessor, Ben Silverman, or their boss, Jeff Zucker, who has been declaring for years that the prime-time TV model is broken and needs to be re-worked.

"Instead of trying to reinvent, going back to basics is probably the smartest play" for the time being, Gaspin said. "We might have been a little too early on this one, but I still think you've got to play with your schedule a little bit differently."

A reporter asked if Comcast, because of its recent deal to acquire NBC Universal, had any influence in the planned moves. "Zero," Gaspin said. "Comcast has nothing to do with our business decisions. We're all just doing our jobs."

O'Brien is thought to be the biggest sticking point in the shake-up, since he would be taking a time-period demotion even if he remains Tonight Show host. (His $25 million-a-year contract reportedly bumps up to $40 million if he's removed from the show.) But, Gaspin said, the network is determined to keep both him and the $30 million-a-year Leno, which was one of the motivations for the time switch in the first place.

"I hope and expect [new deals with all three entertainers] will be in place before the Winter Olympics," he said.