Photo Credit: Mitchell Haaseth
Primetime just wasn't the place for Jay Leno. According to NBC execs, the funnyman's five-nights-a-week, 10 p.m. show has been canceled.
"Starting Feb. 12, The Jay Leno Show will no longer air at 10 p.m.," network chairman Jeff Gaspin said at Sunday's Television Critics Association panel. "While it was performing at acceptable levels for the network, it did not meet our affiliates' needs, and we realized we had to make a change. My goal right now is to keep Jay, Conan [O'Brien] and Jimmy [Fallon] as part of our late-night lineup."
Leno made the move to primetime in September.
"I think you have to take chances. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't," Gaspin admitted.
The network exec said that going forward, NBC is looking to shuffle the late-night lineup and proposes "that The Jay Leno Show move to 11:35, The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien move to 12:05 and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon would then start at 1:05."
Not that the details are set in stone. "The talks are still ongoing," Gaspin said, but said the three men "were incredibly gracious and professional" when told about the new schedule.
So is it curtains for Last Call with Carson Daly, which airs at 1:35 a.m.?
Nope, says Gaspin, promising that Daly will "be part of NBC regardless of what happens. We're fans of Carson. There could be some rejiggering."
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