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Good-bye to Jay,
then hello again

Expect a quiet exit for Leno on his last night

By Louisa Ada Seltzer
Feb 9, 2010

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Barely a year after NBC promised to shake up the entire broadcast model with a weeknight strip show starring comedian Jay Leno, "The Jay Leno Show" is limping off the air for good.

"Leno" airs its series finale tonight at 10 p.m., but Leno himself will be back in less than three weeks as the host of "The Tonight Show," the gig that he surrendered to Conan O'Brien just eight months ago.

The strangest thing about this whole well-covered saga may be that late-night was the one area where NBC had been largely unscathed during its six-year decline.

Primetime plummeted after "Friends" left the air in 2004. The "Today" show, while still dominant in the ratings, lost popular co-host Katie Couric in 2006. Brian Williams surrendered the nightly news lead to Charles Gibson in 2007 before regaining it in 2008. And "Meet the Press" lost host Tim Russert 18 months ago, after which ABC and CBS made slow gains on Sunday morning.

Through all of that, Leno and O'Brien remained far and away the top shows in late and late-late night, respectively. But all that changed literally within days of O'Brien's takeover of "Tonight." His viewership plunged to half what Leno was averaging, and lead-out "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon," with a much lower lead-in, struggled against ABC and CBS.

Meanwhile, Leno lost his golden-boy reputation when his variety show flopped, though Leno himself hardly seemed surprised by the cancellation. Everyone, it seems, knew that this was a bad idea except NBC executives.

It is doubtful there will be even a nostalgic blip in the ratings tonight as Leno exit. Unlike O'Brien, Leno saw no lift from all the controversy surrounding the show last month, and he'll be back on the air next month anyway with nearly the same show.

On Friday, for "Leno's" third-to-last episode, the show averaged a 1.2 adults 18-49 rating, according to Nielsen, and 4.5 million total viewers, just a smidge off the 1.4 rating and 5.1 million viewers Leno averaged in late-night last year.

A look at this week’s top TV draws
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9
Time	Network	Program	Description
7 a.m.	ABC	“Good Morning America” (N)	Actor Taye Diggs and First Lady Michelle Obama guest.
8 p.m.	CBS	“NCIS” (D)	An illegal trucking company ends up leading to the death of a marine.
8 p.m.	NBC	“Biggest Loser: Couples” (R)	The contestants train with the help of Olympic athletes.
8 p.m.	Fox	“American Idol” (R)	Welcome to Hollywood! Ellen DeGeneres joins the judges for the first time.
9 p.m.	ABC	“Lost” (D)	How will ratings hold up after a strong first week back?
9 p.m.	Fox	“Past Life” (D)	Series premiere. A cop and a psychologist help people haunted by events in past lives.
10 p.m.	NBC	“The Jay Leno Show” (V)	Series finale. After tonight "Leno" will be nothing more than a Trivial Pursuit answer.
10 p.m.	Spike TV	“Blue Mountain State” (C)	The players take part in team-building activities in an attempt to end the team’s negative run.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10
Time	Network	Program	Description
7 p.m.	ESPN	“College Basketball” (S)	A Big East rivalry game between Connecticut and Syracuse.
8 p.m.	ABC	“Charlie Brown Valentine” (A, K)	Charlie Brown chases the little red-haired girl and Sally goes for Linus.
9 p.m.	Fox	“American Idol” (R)	More performances from the Hollywood round.
9 p.m.	CBS	“Criminal Minds” (D)	A killer tries to cause fear by killing his victims in public places.
9 p.m.	ABC	“Modern Family” (C)	Phil and Claire try to heat things up, and Jay and Gloria go to a comedy show for Valentine’s Day.
10 p.m.	FX	“Nip/Tuck” (D)	Sean and Christian begin psychotherapy together.
10 p.m.	MTV	“The Real World” (R)	Erika and Ashley get into it and another roommate considers leaving the house.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11
Time	Network	Program	Description
7 a.m.	ABC	“Good Morning America” (N)	Disney star Selena Gomez performs.
8 p.m.	CBS	“Survivor” (R)	Season premiere. The series rolls out a “Heroes vs. Villains” version for its 20th edition.
8 p.m.	CW	“The Vampire Diaries” (D)	Jeremy and Anna meet to go to a party, but Anna has a specific reason for going.
9 p.m.	ABC	“Grey’s Anatomy” (D)	A restaurant’s roof collapses on Valentine’s Day.
9 p.m.	NBC	“The Office” (C)	Either Michael or Jim must step down as manager and return to being a salesman.
10 p.m.	Lifetime	“Project Runway” (R)	The designers compete to have their creation featured on the cover of a fashion magazine.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12
Time	Network	Program	Description
7 a.m.	NBC	“Today” (N)	Singer Michael Buble performs.
7:30 p.m.	NBC	“Winter Olympics” (S)	Coverage of the opening ceremony, along with ski jumping.
8 p.m.	ABC	“Spider-Man 2.1” (M)	DVD version of the sequel, with eight additional minutes.
8 p.m.	Nickelodeon	“iCarly” (K)	Carly feels indebted to Freddie after he saves her life.
9 p.m.	TNT	“NBA Basketball” (S)	The 11th annual Rookie Challenge between the NBA’s best first-year and second-year players.
9 p.m.	VH1	“Famous Crime Scene” (N)	Series premiere. Investigating the 1996 shooting of rapper Tupac Shakur.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13
Time	Network	Program	Description
2 p.m.	NBC	“Winter Olympics” (S)	Today it’s speed skating, ski jumping and biathlon.
3 p.m.	CBS	“PGA Golf” (S)	Third round coverage of the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.
8 p.m.	Fox	“Cops” (R)	Five cops in Florida go undercover to catch drug dealers.
8 p.m.	NBC	“Winter Olympics” (S)	Tonight it’s more speed skating and freestyle and alpine skiing.
9 p.m.	ESPN	“College Basketball” (S)	A big SEC conference game between Tennessee and Kentucky.
8:30 p.m.	TNT	“NBA All-Star Saturday Night” (S)	A variety events, including a skills challenge, a three-point shootout and a slam dunk contest.
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 14
Time	Network	Program	Description
Noon	Fox	“NASCAR Racing” (S)	The 52nd running of the Daytona 500.
1 p.m.	NBC	“Winter Olympics” (S)	This afternoon we have more speed skating, skiing, biathlon and luge.
3 p.m.	CBS	“PGA Golf” (S)	Final round of the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, founded by Bing Crosby in 1937.
7 p.m.	NBC	“Winter Olympics” (S)	Tonight figure skating makes its debut.
8:30 p.m.	TNT	“NBA Basketball” (S)	The 59th annual All-Star game, from Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
9 p.m.	Fox	“Family Guy” (C)	Chris and Stewie get lost in the woods, and later Chris develops a crush on a girl at school.
A = awards show or special, C = comedy, D = drama, DD = daytime drama, G = game show, K = kids, M = movie, N = news/documentary, R = reality, S = sports, T = talk/variety show.