10 things that would be better than ‘The Jay Leno Show’

Posted Nov 11, 2009 by Walt Belcher

Updated Nov 11, 2009 at 04:08 PM

Just a wild thought: NBC ought to tap into its cable holdings for ideas.

Here are 10 shows—whose reruns NBC Universal already owns—that would be better than “The Jay Leno Show”:

• “Burn Notice”
• “Eureka”
• “Royal Pains”
• “Monk”
• “Psych”
• “In Plain Sight”
• “The 4400”
• “Stargate”
• “Dance Your ##### Off”
• “Bad Girls Club”

Apparently no one (other than executives at NBC and its affiliate stations) has faith that Jay Leno’s new 10 p.m. talk show is going to make it.

I like Jay. I like his jokes and his gags. He’s a trouper and a nice guy. But, I’m sorry, his new show is old hat.

It’s tired. And at this point “clunker” has become part of any media reference to it. 

What is wrong with programmers at the Mother Network?  They can’t produce anything as good as the fun dramas and reality shows that are being created by NBC Universal-owned cable networks USA, SyFy, Oxygen and Bravo. Well, maybe not Bravo, home of “Housewives of Orange County,” New Jersey and Atlanta.

But then, something a little different like “Housewives of Burbank” might work.

NBC could get a bigger audience at 10 p.m. by airing first- and second-season reruns of “Monk” and “Battlestar Galactica,” which millions of people haven’t seen because the cable universe is more narrow than broadcast’s. NBC could even air reruns of early “Law & Order” episodes and get a bigger audience.

Maybe NBC Unversal should consider getting its cable sisters to come up something with original for the peacock network.