Comic Leno gets serious about 10 p.m. show

But it’s not all laughs in Lenoland. Leno’s thigh-high in controversy as NBC makes room for his ubiquitous show. The move can either be seen as visionary, or the first step towards disaster.

The risk at first is minimal. There haven’t been any big drama winners coming out of the 10 p.m. timeslot in at least the past five years. There has only been one major hit, “Grey’s Anatomy” in 2005, and one solid rating performer, “Brothers & Sisters” in 2006, while the landscape has been littered with critically acclaimed, but disappointing series including “Shark,” “Journeyman” and “Dirty, Sexy Money.”

Regardless of the 10 p.m. drama track records, Hollywood producers were angry about the loss of scripted shelf space. But in revealing their new schedule, NBC has used Leno as a way of extending the season by ordering more original programming than ever before and stretching it into a year-round model with few repeats.

In the new model, NBC has ordered up inexpensive series including the Canadian supernatural drama “This Listener,” the British import “Merlin,” and two sci-fi miniseries all airing this summer. Beginning in the fall, the network will do time sharing with limited runs of series such as  “Chuck” and “Heroes” to keep fresh programs in the 8 to 9 p.m. slots leading up to Leno's domination of NBC's 10 p.m. weekday block.

In addition to enticing viewers with an extended season of  new shows with limited repeats, network executives  also are banking on Leno's comedy against the heavy dramas offered on the other networks at 10 p.m. as a good viewing alternative.

Of course, if viewers want laughs, Leno said NBC at 10 p.m. is the place to be.

“Every time I turn on a show at 10 o’clock, (you see) ‘we’re taking off the cerebral cortex now.’ That’s fine, but before I go to bed, I’d like to see something funny,” Leno says.

While Leno makes a good point about alternative programming, it’s hard to forget what happened when ABC attempted a similar move by shoving “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” in every time slot. The game show exploded on the scene in 1999, prompting ABC to run the series four times a week by 2000. It only took a year before the boom went bust, and the cocky network, which had cut back on pilot orders, was left with nothing to substitute. ABC went through a painful rebuilding process and has yet to regain its top spot in the ratings race.

NBC’s willing to take that risk with Leno. Given his success at late night, he may just be able to pull off this bold experiment.

Susan C. Young is a San Francisco Bay Area writer.

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