Tonight Starts the End of NBC Late Night

Not that Jimmy Fallon won’t do well in the 12:37 time slot; he will probably do quite well for a while, as everyone is anxious for something new at that time. No, the beginning of the end is simply the start of a change in the viewing habits of the NBC core audience. (How many people that comprises is anyone’s guess, but it is not very many, based on my casual conversations with others.)

Fallon will do well at 12:37, as Ferguson has been wearing thin lately, and ABC offers nothing to compete with these two. In the circles I move in lately, Leno and Letterman  are taking a back seat to Charlie Rose, as he is entertaining and informative – a great combination.

Since I hardly ever watch Jay Leno anymore, I probably won’t be watching Conan O’Brian, as he wasn’t that funny at 12:37, and unless the changes forced by time slot and coast are many, I can see a great shift to Letterman coming. (Frankly I was surprised to see that Leno has had a larger audience than Letterman, because Leno has been wearing on me for the last 5 years. At the same time, Letterman is getting more and more like his mentor each day. The humor is a bit more offbeat than Jonny Carson’s was, but the skills as an interviewer are now almost on par with the master.

The really big gamble is going to be Leno at 10. The good thing for Leno is that three of the five week nights there is not much competition. I wonder how long this will last, both because Leno will be not changing the format of the show, and because I happen to think he was simply talked into one more big payday – will his heart be in it?

I still watch television at these times, but many i know are on the internet, or watching rented movies – lots of cable and satellite subscriptions have been lapsing lately.

I’m guessing that this just might be NBC’s last hurrah, and General Electric’s last big gamble. I’ve said it before, and I’ll repeat – NBC needs to put on some of the shows it considers ‘B’ players, like Monk and Burn Notice, because they slam anything on the mother network from the last ten or so years.

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