NBC axes Leno's prime-time show

Broadcaster NBC has pulled the plug on comedian Jay Leno’s struggling prime-time TV show.

The much-rumoured move came after some affiliate stations considered dropping the nightly show.

The network is waiting to hear if Leno and Tonight host Conan O’Brien accept its new late-night TV plans.

'The Jay Leno Show', which is shown at 10pm US time, will end with the February 12 start of the Winter Olympics, said NBC Universal Television’s entertainment chairman Jeff Gaspin.

Leno would return to his former 11.35pm slot after the Olympics ended under the network’s new plan, which also calls for O’Brien to retain his job with 'Tonight', but at the later hour of 12.05am.

'Jimmy Fallon and his Late Night' would be pushed a half-hour later as well, to 1.05am.

“My goal is to keep Jay, Conan and Jimmy as our late-night line-up,” Mr Gaspin said, adding later that they “have the weekend to think about it” and discussions with them would resume today.

NBC had moved Leno to prime-time last year in order to keep him from leaving the company and keep a promise it had made to give O’Brien the 'Tonight' show.

The change was one of the most dramatic in prime-time television in a generation, but also a big gamble at a time NBC was suffering in prime-time. It did not last six months.

Mr Gaspin said the new proposal gave Leno what was important to him – telling jokes at a later hour – and O’Brien his top priority, retaining Tonight.

He said that despite lower ratings for NBC at 10pm compared with the previous year, the network was making money from the show.

But affiliates were upset that it was leading fewer viewers into their late news programmes, costing them significant advertising revenue.

Some affiliates told NBC in December they would go public about their complaints unless a change was made, or Leno’s show was taken off the air.

Michael Fiorile, chairman of the NBC Affiliate Board, said it was a great move for NBC stations, the networks and viewers.

“We admire their willingness to innovate, and their willingness to change course when it didn’t work for us,” he said.

Leno and O’Brien made comedic hay out of the issue last week. Leno joked in his monologue that NBC was working on a solution in which all parties would be treated unfairly, while O’Brien wisecracked that he and Leno would be thrown by the network into a pit to fight and “the one that crawls out gets to leave NBC”.

Mr Gaspin said he was “perfectly fine” with their on-air remarks “if that’s how they blow off steam and that’s how they’re comfortable”.

Asked if O’Brien and Fallon expressed anger at his proposal, Mr Gaspin said both men were professional and understanding when they talked. “Beyond that, it was a private conversation,” he said.

O’Brien reportedly has a contract that guarantees him a multimillion-dollar payment if Tonight is moved later than 12.05am.

But Mr Gaspin denied that had influenced his decision to move O’Brien’s show by just half an hour rather than an hour.

The decision to shift Leno will leave a gaping hole in NBC’s prime-time schedule, at a time the network is already struggling.

A mix of reality programming, Dateline NBC and at least two hours of scripted shows will be added to fill in the five hours taken up by Leno’s prime-time show each week.