Is NBC Backing Out of Prime Time?

It was announced a couple of years ago that Jay Leno would be leaving The Tonight Show to be replaced by Conan O'Brien in 2009. There was some question as to what exactly Leno would do, and it was understood that he was fielding offers from ABC and Fox to do late night for them. Although it wasn't clear that this was related to the Leno situation, earlier today, NBC Universal chief Jeff Zucker suggested that his network might program fewer hours of prime time. On the surface, that sounded like suicide, but a few hours later, it became clear what he was talking about. Jay Leno's moving to prime time. NBC is taking five hours out of its weeknight schedule and giving it to him. Starting in fall 2009, he'll be on every weeknight at 10:00 (9:00 central). Bill Carter tells us in the New York Times that the final hour of the evening has been suffering in the ratings, and that this is one way to address that. But doesn't it seem like answering the problem by giving up is just . . . giving up.

Perhaps network TV is in much worse shape than I've realized. It's under siege from cable, which is featuring more original programming every year. Maybe there's simply not much life left in the networks--we still tune in out of habit, but habits are made to be broken, and as the years progress, new viewers are coming up that never formed that habit to begin with. But every chip that forms in the facade of traditional TV weakens it and makes room for new ones. I can't help but thinking that we're a little bit closer to the end of TV as we've known it.