Late Night Wars Coming to an End?

The last few weeks have been a very interesting time at NBC, as both there primetime and late night schedule is being mixed up. The NBC bashing has come from all sides, even house. And I for one am kind of glad with the results to come so far.

Let me start by pledging my late night affiliation: I'm team Chelsea Handler all the way. That's the only late night show that I can and do watch every night. I've even been to a taping of her show. But that's for a different post.

So I don't regularly watch Leno/Letterman/O'Brien. But I think for the most part, everyone is coming out a winner, with the exception of NBC itself.

Most creative people in the television industry are glad to see The Jay Leno Show failed at 10 PM. Nothing against the guy, but his show meant there were five less shows on the air at NBC. So now that they are going back to the way things should be, that means more opportunities for shows to do well in those slots. That means more shows for all of us to work on. Definite win. And can you imagine if The Jay Leno Show had actually been successful? Then maybe CBS and ABC would have tried to do the same. The television community ended up getting five slots back, instead of possibly losing fifteen.

So now Jay Leno moves back to 11:35. Which is where he wanted to be all along. He wasn't ready to retire. He was still at the top of his game. Sure he's coming back with his reputation a little bit damaged. But still, I think its a win for him.

And poor Conan O'Brien. Only he's not so poor after all. By playing the underdog, he's managed to build a huge image for himself. And he and his staff are getting up to $40 million to NOT put a show on the air. I could NOT work for that amount of money. And come next season he'll be able to launch a show on another network. Most likely on a network that will appreciate his humor and his young adult following. Yes, Conan is a winner in all of this, even if it means he only had the Tonight Show for seven months.

The big loser in all this - NBC. There primetime schedule is in a mess, they really have no breakout hits. It's going to take them a long time to bounce back from this mess they put themselves in. Hopefully, they can start launching some creative and unique shows that audiences will latch onto. Only then will they become a winner.

And I'm still trying to figure out how all of this can help Chelsea Handler. Oh well, she still has E! Some things never need to change.