Leno’s Star-Studded Lineup Impressive for Tonight Show Return
Jay Leno takes on The Tonight Show’s hosting duties again on March 1st. NBC is pushing top name stars and atheletes to kick-start the show with Leno to combat bad publicity. The cancellation of Leno’s primetime show, The Jay Leno Show, and subsequent disaster moving The Tonight Show’s timeslot in order to keep both Leno and Conan O’Brien on the roster, only to lose O’Brien in the process, had long time viewers complaining and fans of O’Brien protesting NBC’s actions.
Leno’s guests for the premiere week of The Tonight Show include former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, gold medal Olympians Apolo Anton Ohno, Shaun White and Lindsey Vonn, American Idol singer Adam Lambert, the cast of MTV’s Jersey Shore, country singer Brad Paisley and American Idol judge Simon Cowell. Leno’s upcoming guests in the following weeks include Morgan Freeman, Kim Kardashian, Jamie Foxx and Dakota Fanning.
The controversy surrounding the cast of MTV’s Jersey Shore and recent comments by American Idol judge Simon Cowell should intrigue viewers and provide some colorful moments during the first week of the show. The combination of Sarah Palin and Adam Lambert booked on the same night, along with the fact that Palin’s first interview on a late-night talk show is the rival to David Letterman’s show, with whom Palin has feuded with in the past, might pique viewer interest. This could be good programming or clever fanning of the flames to gain viewership from bad PR that might result in lower ratings than competitor Letterman’s show.
The Late Show with David Letterman is counter programming in coming weeks with scheduled guests Jerry Seinfeld, Matt Damon, Tom Brokaw and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. Seinfeld, who is a friend of Leno’s and promoting his new NBC show The Marriage Ref will appear on CBS’s The Late Show the first week Leno is back in action.
More controversy was stoked when it was announced on February 16 that Kevin Eubanks, bandleader of Leno’s Tonight Show and his primetime show The Jay Leno Show, is leaving as bandleader soon after the The Tonight Show resumes production.
The Tonight Show’s star-studded line-up for March should gain interest from viewers. The question is will the bad publicity from what some viewers may see as removing O’Brien to replace him with previous Tonight Show host Leno be forgotten that easily? Time and ratings will tell the story.
