The Jay Leno Show

I believe that Jay has talent, but I do not believe that there is a valuable tradeoff for taking, at least, five potentially great shows out of contention, just to redo the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, during primetime - and yes, I realize that this show is somewhat different, yet essentially, to this viewer, the same.

Truth be told, we have gone to other stations (including cable stations), as a result of NBC's decision to force Jay on us, during a valuable prime time slot. I think that this exacerbates the traditional networks' problem; driving away valuable viewers - losing further market share to the cable stations.

My advice: Stick with the formula of innovation, through a variety of programming. The early years of TV invoked the fewer choices rule, but that was not damaging because there were no other video entertainment choices. Today, this is a dangerous, and heavy handed, approach, which has bottom-line consequences for the networks.

If NBC has some creative challenges, do not give up shows that can bring new viewers, like "Southland", and delay others like "Chuck" but also, consider picking up unwanted gems from other networks, like Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

This show is awful, even worse than the regular Late Night with Jay Leno show and that show was never funny to begin with. Jay Leno is not funny! This show is even worse, with horrible jokes and Jay Leno's stupid cackling, then when it didn't work they took his show back for him. Was Conan O'Brien funny on Late Night? No not really but he was still 20 times better than Leno was on Conan's worst day. Conan also was funny on his show before he took over Late Night so he deserved more of a chance. Leno has been on TV for far too long considering he has never once been funny. He is a terrible hack who should get off TV. The only worse Late Night shows I have ever seen are Jimmy Fallon (that man should be dragged off TV and thrown into the nearest ocean) and maybe Mike Bullard who Canadians will know as the unfunniest Canadian ever put on TV.

I have just finished watching portions of the first two episodes of Leno's new talk show. I have seen Leno live and he is much funnier than he ever has been on TV. His new show will primarily appeal to older Americans who wouldn't dream of watching a Comedy Central Roast and think David Letterman -- the true king of late night TV -- is too edgy or incomprehensible. I figure the earlier time slot for Leno's new show is for the sake of aging Baby Boomers who are long gone by 11:30. Leno's monologues are tepid, and the whole format strikes me as odd. Maybe he should do a variety show, like Ed Sullivan. Or he could do a revamp of The Midnight Special, only at 10 p.m. If you can stay awake long enough for Letterman, that's the show to watch.

I watched this in its debut last night expecting the same thing as when he hosted the Tonight Show-and I was right. He did his same jokes, such as headlines, and his same style with the monologues and interviews and skits, which was a good thing. I liked his interview with Jerry Seinfeld, who was quite possibly the perfect first guest. This could be a good sign of things to come. I missed him while he was gone this summer. NBC did the right thing in keeping Leno after he decided to leave The Tonight Show. This seems like a good prime-time talk show, and I hope it lasts for a while. It is basically Leno's Tonight Show with a different set. Yes, Kevin Eubanks is back with him. The band is now called the Prime Time band.

*** out of ****

Seriously, that may be the only radical change in his new show. Everything else is pretty much the same as when he was on The Tonight Show.

For his first show, he had the same politically-themed monologue, used the old familiar Headlines bit and brought a segment featuring a comedian nobody heard of before but I doubt Leno fans will like it. As for the guests, he had Jerry Seinfeld on as his 1st guest and also a music performance by Jay-Z, Rihanna and Kanye West, who also apologized for his infamous interruption during Taylor Swift's VMA award acceptance speech.

Jay Leno continues to do what he had been doing for the last 17 years which is rely on everything and everyone around him to provide the funny for his show while he goes on through the motions, as if his main concern is to finish tonight's show so he can immediately start tomorrow's show.

I wish Jay Leno would try harder at being funny himself than depending on everyone else to be funny for him. The 1st show attracted 18 million viewers so he has a fan base, nobody can deny that but the true abilities of The Jay Leno Show will be revealed when the show goes head- to-head against NBC's dramas. And even if it wins the ratings battle, it wouldn't matter much anyway cause people's standards have been lowered to the point where they will believe anything they see on TV is "great". It won't change the fact that Jay Leno stopped being funny a long time ago.

In conclusion, if you liked the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, you will like the Jay Leno Show. If you didn't like the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, you're probably still waiting on Conan to be himself again.