After much heavy promotion by NBC the new Jay Leno show has arrived, making its debut right now to TV audiences on the east coast.
So far at 37 minutes into it the Twitterverse isn’t being kind to Leno’s new gig, to put it mildly.
WHDH owner Ed Ansin caused a brouhaha in April 2009 when his station announced they won’t air the new Jay Leno show. At the time Ansin told the Boston Globe he thinks Leno won’t be effective in prime time. NBC threatened to strip WHDH of their affiliation if they proceeded to move Leno to 11pm. Ten days later NBC announced Leno will air on WHDH after all, leading some to speculate Ansin caved in to NBC or that NBC offered him some kind of deal in order to stave off all the negative publicity generated by the rebel NBC affiliate.
If you watched Leno’s new gig tell us what you thought of it, take the poll after the jump
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I think Ed is probably sitting back with a nice drink and thinking I was right. Damn!
I watched Leno’s new show, and thought it was great. I saw that Kanye West apologized for the Video Music Awards incident.
I’m hoping that Leno’s new show will be gicen some time to prove itself. This is just my take on it.
I enjoyed it. I’ve always been a fan of Leno but rarely got to watch the Tonight Show due to my work schedule. I won’t watch his new show *every* night but it’s a nice alternative to the regular crime dramas I don’t watch anyway in that time slot.
I watched it and I thought it was pretty good. Don’t know how often I will watch. I think that they will try different things and keep what works and drop what doesn’t work.
It will be a cold day in hell before I credit Ansin with being right about anything. I said for years that prime time should cut back to 8-10, local news next, then start the talk shows or national news. Fox has claimed ratings victories in years past with smaller schedules than the other 3 real nets. It is obvious the big 3 do not wish to fully fund a full prime time schedule, so stop pretending to. I’d much rather get Letterman at 10:30. Leno is no better at any hour, so..giving Kanye West a platform for his whining–not too desperate, huh? He should have been bounced after the MTV fiasco, not elevated to an interview. BTW, that Rihanna really knows how to pick her male companions, hmm?
Jay seemed a bit nervous at times (or was that me watching too closely?), but overall it was good, and it moved nicely.
Car wash thing was better than I expected, but went on almost a bit too long.
Banter with Seinfeld was pretty light, but I think that was more Jerry than Jay. Jerry’s just not that interesting anymore.
Kanye’s apology was almost funny – I really thought he was going to cry when Jay asked him what his Mom would think. Very awkward moment (West is a self-absorbed idiot) but Jay bailed his sorry ass out. Loved West’s “haircut” with the alien cornfield design imprinted on his head. LOL!
Musical spot was pretty bad, and West didn’t do a thing for 3/4 of the “song”. It should get better when Jay has better guests, and the combination of two or more guests doing one song should prove interesting.
Overall, the show was pretty good, but it needs a bit of work. I’m sure it will get better as time goes on. I’ll be watching most of the time.
I enjoyed the show myself. The band sure got smaller! Anyone notice that too? I see Leno’s old announcer was gone too. I think Leno knew he had to make it different and he did. Leno did it and still kept it funny. Leno did a rare 2 part interview with Travis Smiley on PBS. It was one of the best interviews I’ve seen in a while. Try to see it if possible. Man, that garage Leno has in unreal. He has 2 huge garages, one to display cars and another to work on them. The garages are next door to his house. It’s amazing how much Leno knows about each car! He actually works on the cars himself, along with a staff of about 7 others. He banked 100% of all the money he got from the Tonight Show. Can you imagine how much money he must have, he was making about 29 million a year !
Yes, the band is definitely smaller, but they still sound great, and Eubanks still smokes on his guitar.
I read that John Melendez (aka Stuttering John from the Stern show) is being reduced to just a few bit parts here and there – no more announcing for him. He’s got a horrible voice for that anyway.
I saw one of the two PBS Tavis Smiley shows – just terrific! Jay came off as just a regular guy and was very honest in talking to Smiley. Great interview.
One of the best lines last night was when Jay said he participated in the ‘cash for clunkers’ program – said he made billions of dollars trading in his old cars…
Honestly,
His show was bad, but it could have been more worse if Ansin had his way. (Don’t believe me? Try watching the previous SuperBowls on WSVN and instead of the post-game TV show, you get their crap.)
I was watching Monday Night Football and missed some of the show, i missed the monologues for example. I saw the last half hour and really enjoyed it, Jay is just a great guy. I think NBC really did something good for a difference. Ive read up on alot of new plans they still have up their sleeves, I’ll be watching out for that.
Glad, someone else though Jay’s old announcer had a bad voice. As a former DJ, I thought often, my voice is much better and how I’d like a job and money like that! About $500,000 a yr is what I believe he was getting paid. Sweet gig !!!!
Melendez’ whole gig was sort of a joke to begin with. Leno took him right from under Howard Stern’s nose (no pun intended) about six years ago.
Melendez started out on Stern’s show as a nobody who was good for a few laughs doing interviews, stuttering all the while. People laughed outright at him, not with him. He was pretty much a dirtbag that Stern made quasi-rich from his show. At the so-called peak of Melendez’ career, he accepted an offer from Leno to be the Tonight Show announcer (and took speech lessons to rid himself of his stuttering problem), which was almost an inside joke considering his history.
I liked it, but I’m not sure he’ll be able to keep the momentum going. The ratings sure were good!
If Leno kept himself at no 1 for 17 years, I don’t think that will be much of a problem.
I watched all week. I enjoyed it. I love the “Headlines” segment. I missed that when he went off the Tonight Show. I’ll TiVo my favorite 10:00pm shows and continue watching as long as he keeps the show fresh.