Peacock is prepped to announce on Tuesday that the "Tonight Show" host will take over the 10 p.m. weeknight slot starting next fall - a blockbuster move that had been rumored as a possibility for months, but something NBC had believed was a real long shot until recently.
Decision to strip Leno at 10 p.m. solves one of the most pressing issue facing NBC in the coming year: How to keep ratings leader Leno at the network, and away from the competition.
Move also saves "Tonight Show" successor Conan O'Brien from having to compete against his predecessor - who was expected to land in the 11:35 slot at another network, most likely ABC. (Fox and Sony, among others, had expressed interest too.) But by keeping Leno on at 10 p.m., O'Brien may also very well wind up being overshadowed by his predecessor - particularly since Leno will air in primetime, when TV viewing is higher.
By putting Leno in the 10 p.m. slot, NBC U topper Jeff Zucker has just completely altered the primetime landscape going into next season.
With 10 p.m. now filled by Leno - not to mention Sunday Night Football consuming four nights on Sunday and repeats on Saturday - NBC may program as few as ten hours of traditional primetime fare next fall. With some of those hours likely to be reality shows, there's not much room left for scripted fare.
That may strike fear into the hearts of agents, studios and producers, but it also might be NBC's ticket out of the ratings dumpster. The 10 p.m. slot, which is still key for stations, which depend on network viewership as a lead-in for its local newscasts, has been mostly a disaster for NBC.
TRIBUNE COMPANY FILES FOR BANKRUPTCY
Monday's bankruptcy filing by Tribune Co. has raised speculation that the company's dire straits will prompt it to focus largely on its TV assets and sell the Los Angeles Times and other newspapers.
The Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition, filed in a Delaware court, came nearly a year to the day after Chicago-based Tribune Co. was taken private in a complex $8.2 billion buyout led by Chi real estate mogul Sam Zell. The deal left Tribune saddled with $13 billion in debt.
Now that Tribune has officially cratered under the weight of all that debt, there's buzz -- possibly more wishful thinking than anything else -- that a white knight like David Geffen or Eli Broad could step forward to take the L.A. Times off Tribune's hands at a fire-sale price.
While Tribune's stations have been hammered by the local advertising slump, the long-term revenue picture at the stations is not as bleak as it appears to be for the newspapers. Insiders said the regime installed by Zell has come to realize that there's not as much synergy potential as they initially thought between the company's newspapers and TV stations that serve the same market, particularly in Los Angeles between the Times and CW affiliate KTLA.
Broad, prominent L.A. billionaire and philanthropist, and Geffen were among those who kicked the tires on the Times two years ago, when the previous Tribune Co. regime put the entire company up for sale.
In early 2007, Broad teamed with fellow L.A. billionaire Ron Burkle on a bid for Tribune, though it was clear at the time that their interest was primarily in their hometown newspaper.
Tribune's bankruptcy announcement follows a string of bad news for the company and the Los Angeles Times, which has responded to the economic crunch with waves of cost-cutting and layoffs, reducing an editorial staff that stood at 1,200 at the start of the decade to about 650.
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BOX OFFICE
The Duchess
