NBC Zucks Up Its Late Night

Fatboy Zucker AKA Humpty Dumpty has ruined the Evening half of the Crown Jewels of NBC. Can the Today Show be far behind?

The network has a plan in the works to restore Jay Leno to his old spot at 11:35 each weeknight for a half-hour, while pushing the man who replaced him, Conan O’Brien, to a starting time of 12:05 a.m. Mr. O’Brien would then have a full hour.

NBC executives held extensive discussions with both Mr. Leno and Mr. O’Brien on Thursday about the future of the network’s late-night lineup. One senior executive, who declined to be identified because of the continuing talks, said that the moves were still being thrashed out by the representatives of each of the stars, but that an agreement was essentially in place. There is no timetable yet to issue a final announcement of the plan because contractual details remain to be worked out.

The change, if completed, would represent a retreat from the network’s strategy of replacing Mr. Leno, who drove “The Tonight Show” to the top of the late-night ratings, with the younger, hipper Mr. O’Brien, then trying to save money in prime time by replacing expensive dramas with Mr. Leno’s show at 10 p.m.

The moves are being driven by pressure from NBC’s affiliated stations, which have seen ratings for their late-night local newscasts plummet since September. That was when NBC began “The Jay Leno Show,” a prime-time version of Mr. Leno’s old late-night show. Mr. O’Brien succeeded Mr. Leno as host of “The Tonight Show” in June.

Zucker was the architect of this train wreck of a business model, if a terribly mixed metaphor can be used to describe a terrible network which is slowly destroying itself through Zucker's last decade of incompetent blundering eff-ups. Humpty Dumpty will probably convey over to Comcast which is such a monstrosity itself on the business side that he could conceivably stand out as above average. Over at GE, Zucker and Immelt compete in a race to the bottom in their respective industries.
As for NBC's Late Night blunders,

[b]oth experiments were being keenly watched by an industry struggling with demographic shifts, declining audiences and escalating costs. A deal was struck last month to sell NBC Universal, the parent of NBC, to Comcast, and one person with knowledge of the negotiations said that NBC’s poor performance — it languishes in last place in prime time — was a driving reason for the sale.

Mr. Leno addressed the developments on his show Thursday night. “I don’t think there is any truth to the rumors,” he said during his monologue. “See, it’s always been my experience that NBC only cancels you when you’re in first place.”

Self-destructive or suicidal, NBC remains in the death-grip of Humpty-Dumpty Zucker, an unparalleled unprecedented fuck-up in an industry riddled with mediocre third-rate fucktards, losers, and general all-round ne'er-do-wells.