Jay Leno

NBC wants to get you in the habit of seeing Jay Leno in his earlier time slot, and to that end has begun airing at 10 o'clock sharp promos that feature the late-night vet cracking wise.

"From the moment he left The Tonight Show until the moment [The Jay Leno Show] starts, there won't be a day where Jay doesn't appear on NBC," NBC Universal TV Group chief marketing officer John Miller told Variety. "We want to create a 10 o'clock habit."

Thus far the promos have ... read more 44 Comments

Howard Stern must be thrilled that CBS is looking to re-up Late Show host David Letterman's contract through 2012.

The Sirius Radio shock jock stopped by The Late Show Monday, and during his time in the chair, he praised Letterman while taking shots at Dave's new late-night rival and the prime time-bound Jay Leno.

"We've got to beat this Conan," Stern said. "How are you feeling that Jay left late-night television, and now we've got a new guy to compete with?"

Stern, who gave credit to Letterman for putting the radio host on the map, continued to rail on Leno, even to the point that Letterman became visibly uncomfortable. In particular, Stern called out Leno's ... read more 41 Comments

The Jay Leno Show will debut on Sept. 14, NBC announced Tuesday. The show will air Monday through Friday at 10 pm/ET, eating up one-third of the Peacock's once-valuable prime time programming space.

Among the shows affected by the resulting schedule shuffle are Law & Order; SVU, which moves to Wednesdays at 9, and the original Law & Order, which unspools its record-tying 20th season on Fridays at 8. (See our full fall TV grid here for more details.)

Tonight Show successor Conan O'Brien... read more 31 Comments

Jay Leno's reign as host of The Tonight Show ended on an appropriately high note, as the NBC talker delivered its best-ever Friday ratings in Leno's 17-year run.

The exact overnights — an 8.8/20 in metered-market households — represent more than double (a 126 percent increase) The Tonight Show's second-quarter average.

Leno's Tonight Show sign-off also served up the program's best ratings since President Obama's March 19 visit. Excluding that milestone, it was the show's biggest draw in more than four years, since a January 2005 tribute to Johnny Carson.

Leno's final Tonight Show was veritably celebrity-free, save for a performance by James Taylor. Instead, the venerable host reflected on the highlights of his tenure and cued up "best of" montages of such segments as "Jay-walking."

In his monologue, Leno thanked three people who made his 17-year run such a success ... read more 30 Comments

Why doesn't anyone seem too worked up about Jay Leno leaving The Tonight Show? Maybe because he's only kind of leaving. Come fall, fans will still get to see him five nights a week, 90 minutes earlier. As we look ahead to the start of a new Tonight Show era Monday, with Conan O'Brien behind the desk, let's also look back on the most memorable moments of Leno's 17 years with the show. read more 17 Comments