NBC Confirms It's Dropping Jay Leno Show At Start of Olympics

NBC has confirmed today that it's dropping the Primetime version of The Jay Leno Show at the start of the Winter Olympics. Not that it's a big shocker to anyone, as it's been rumored for the past week, along with a few different solutions.

Once the Olympics start, Jay Leno will return to his old time slot, but only in a 30 minute format. No one is quite sure how that will work out, as all versions of his show, both primetime and late night, have always been sixty minutes long.

Regardless, the only success NBC has had in late night since the legendary Johnny Carson retired has been with Leno. Although they had great plans and hopes for Conan O'Brien, they just aren't willing to give him the chances they once did. When O'Brien first took over for David Letterman, he had dismal ratings, but NBC waited and gave his show time to grow, which it did. They can't do that in this newer time slot, however, and viewers just don't seem willing to watch his brand of humor an hour earlier.

Because of that, NBC plans to have Leno return for the first half hour following the local news, assumably just long enough to grab those viewers before they go to David Letterman and CBS. After this thirty minutes, Conan will air for sixty minutes, followed by Jimmy Fallon an hour after that.

One thing that may help, or hurt, viewing habits will be the half hour day to include Leno. If viewers finish watching Leno, you would think they'd be less likely to join Letterman thirty minutes into his show and instead would just stick with O'Brien. Only night owls like myself, though, would be up that late to watch Fallon.

What do you think about this new plan for NBC? Can Leno just step back into his old shoes? Or after the recent primetime failure will viewers not be willing to go back to their old viewing habits?