NBC’s Jeffrey Zucker is being attacked for his now-obvious misstep in moving Jay Leno to the 10 PM slot. Leno has not done well in the slot, and NBC affiliates are screaming bloody murder that their lead-in to their 11 PM news slot (the most profitable broadcast of the day for most affiliates) has been decimated.
So, Zucker is pulling the plug, and the whole grand experiment of a chat show in primetime will come to an end.
But, while this experiment may have gone awry, it doesn’t mean that the long-term trends have changed.