Jay Leno drew almost 18 million viewers to the debut of his new prime-time show Monday, which should come as no surprise, given NBC's relentless promotion in the run-up to the premiere that bordered on absurdity.
The ads weren't funny, and predictably enough, neither was the show, which despite endless promises to the contrary is as close to the "Tonight Show" format as Jay can possibly come. The only difference? A desk - or the absence thereof.
As expected by most, the new Leno is really very much the same as the old Leno. His primetime show adheres to the same formula as his late night show, except less funny and without a desk. A monologue, taped comedy bits, talk-show guests, musical performances, headlines, credits. The order of content delivery may have changed, but the flavor and tone hasn't. Not one bit.
After the predictable opening monologue, the momentum ground to a halt during musical comedian Dan Finnerty's seven-minute car wash bit, which went on far too long (dude sang THREE songs!) and fell flat long before any laughs were delivered. Leaving the largest segment of the show in the hands of guest correspondents is a terrible idea, one of many the show is on track to make. If it wasn't my job to watch the entire thing, I certainly would've heeded the requests of my family, who were begging me to change the channel midway through the skit.
Unfortunately, the meat of the show was equally disappointing. Leno's hand-picked first guest, Jerry Seinfeld, showed up in a tuxedo to plug his new project, which barely got a mention in the blink-and-miss-it interview. How is Seinfeld relevant anymore? What has he done in the past decade or so to give anyone a reason to tune in? In a word: nothing. But the grandmas love him (at least mine does), and a familiar face is what the show needed to start off on the right foot.
Producers called a last-minute audible to get a quick sit-down with Kanye West, who was the biggest name in the news after his disrespectful stage-crashing during Taylor Swift’s award-acceptance speech on Sunday night's MTV VMAs. After two apologies on his own site, West came out full of remorse, apparently trying to keep from bursting into tears as Leno questioned what his mother would say about the VMAs incident.
Leno failed to put the appearance into proper context for those who missed the event, but it wouldn't have helped dilute the unabashed ratings-grab. West mentioned having never taken a break to grieve over his mother, and announced that he would finally do so in order to reflect on his behavior. He seemed genuine enough, but once the interview was over, Kanye put on his sunglasses and black leather jacket, hopped on the stage with Jay-Z and Rihanna and proceeded to rap about “an ass that will swallow up a G-strings / and up top, uh, two bee stings.”
In prime time, Leno doesn't have the luxury of putting the musical guest last, so as to avoid alienating chunks of his wide demographic. Local stations clamoring for a lead-in to their 11pm newscasts simply won't stand for it. As a result, the anticlimactic (and rather rushed) "Headlines" segment that closed the show fell limp.
The ratings may remain high throughout this first week, but they will soon plummet, leaving producers scrambling to save face by reformatting the show, which will alienate his dwindling audience even more. Unless a longer contract has already been locked in, I give the new Leno show two seasons before it's yanked from the air - and that's on the generous side.
