The Jay Leno Show (Debacle)

The whole Jay Leno Show fiasco has reeked of desperation and awkwardness from the start, since Jay began quietly bitching about how he wasn’t ready to leave the Tonight Show last year. And why would he want to leave? He’s not old, and his show continued to dominate the ratings in the 11:30 time slot. But NBC was afraid of losing Conan O’Brien, who--despite the comparisons to Johnny Carson—doesn’t really have mainstream appeal.

Conan’s hilarious, extraordinarily talented, and easily my favorite late night TV host, but he doesn’t have the “aw shucks” all ‘merican persona that Carson had and Jay has (even though they are cultivated personas--Carson was very, very shy in real life). And despite the chasm of differences between Carson and Leno, what bound them together and kept the Tonight Show on top for years was the fact that they connected with the average ‘merican, watching their late night TV in some McMansion in Tulsa, looking for some PG-13 humor before having to get up for their job again.

But NBC gave Conan the Tonight Show, which means absolutely nothing, as he’s still the guy on after Leno. And now Jay Leno has this charity case of a TV show—and that’s really what it is, a consolation prize for NBC giving him the heave-ho too soon.

The show feels awkward and forced because of its awkward and forced origins. Leno has this whole "What the hell am I doing? Why is NBC doing this to me?" kind of attitude throughout his familiar segments, like interviewing dumb people or finding typos in newspapers. The most awkward parts were the interviews, where a visibly uncomfortable Jerry Seinfeld could barely contain how pathetic he thought this whole operation was.

The show is a brutal reminder of how cruel show business can be. Jay Leno had one of the greatest jobs in the entertainment industry up until a few months ago, and now—even though he has a better time slot—he’s on this complete disaster of a show that feels like damaged goods, desperately spinning his wheels for a laugh. Because of contracts, basically.

No one really wins here. Jay and his viewers are going to feel uncomfortable for a while, maybe for the duration of this show. Critics and most people will eventually forget that this show is on. And any prestige/career advancement that Conan O’Brien may have felt by inheriting the institution of the Tonight Show is massively cheapened, or completely destroyed altogether.

Well, I guess Jimmy Fallon won. Good for him!