After a few days of speculation, the news is now official: NBC confirmed that Jay Leno will be leaving his 10 o'clock time slot and returning to late-night. The last prime-time episode of "The Jay Leno Show" will air on February 12. There is currently no word on how the shake-up will effect Conan O'Brien (the host of "The Tonight Show," which airs in the 11:30 slot that Leno will be once-again assuming) or Jimmy Fallon (whose show airs after Conan's).
Though Leno ruled late night for years as the host of "The Tonight Show," he did not enjoy the same dominance when his new show launched back in September 2009. Though the show started strong, the ratings quickly bottomed out. The low numbers upset local affiliates, whose 11 p.m. newscasts were tanking because the lead-in audience was so low.
"The Jay Leno Show" joins an elite club of spectacular talk show disasters. While some of the entries on the list below only went a handful of nights, Leno's five months in purgatory have certainly tarnished his otherwise bulletproof image and will associate him with the likes of some of the other key failures in talk show history. To wit:
"The Chevy Chase Show"
Perhaps the greatest and most high-profile late night failure of all time, "The Chevy Chase Show" premiered in 1993 on Fox and was canceled after only five weeks on the air. It was undone by Chase's acerbic personality, poisonous reviews and anemic booking — probably because it kicked off within weeks of "The Late Show with David Letterman" on CBS and "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" on NBC. Chase's career was never the same (he's only recently been semi-revived by "Community").
"The Magic Hour"
Never a network to stay down after it has been kicked, Fox waded into the late-night waters again in 1998 when they gave Magic Johnson his own talk show. While Johnson is certainly a dynamic presence, he came across as tense and uncomfortable on his own show, and really proved unable to riff. After a lot of re-tooling (and a public feud with Howard Stern), the show was pulled after eight weeks.
"Fernwood 2 Night"
"Fernwood 2 Night" was a parody of a talk show that took place in the fictional town of Fernwood, Ohio, and relied heavily on satire of the genre (though hosts Martin Mull and Fred Willard still interviewed celebrity guests). It ran in the summer of 1977 before being re-tooled as "America 2 Night" (which was slightly more conventional). Though now regarded as a cult classic, it was little more than a fiasco when it aired.
"The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers"
Fox's first foray into late night saw them woo Joan Rivers away from Johnny Carson's camp for an ill-fated turn as competitor with "The Tonight Show" in 1986. Rivers was removed after only a few weeks and the show eventually morphed into the far more successful "The Arsenio Hall Show."
"The Wilton North Report"
Fox strikes again, this time with two morning radio DJs putting together funny news packages. The show lasted less than a month, mostly because the format was confusing and off-putting (though "The Daily Show" certainly figured out how to make it work a decade later).
"The Keenan Ivory Wayans Show"
Following the comedy juggernaut that was "In Living Color," Keenan Ivory Wayans launched his own talk show that featured celebrity guests and an all-girl band called Ladies of the Night. The show ran from August 1997 to March 1998.
"The Whoopi Goldberg Show"
Long before Goldberg was a staple on "The View," she had her own syndicated show in 1992. Despite having a very high-profile interview with Princess Diana, the show was gone by 1993.
"The Ron Reagan Show"
The son of president Ronald Reagan had his own late-night show that also attempted to mix politics with humor, though its 1991 premiere was quickly followed by its cancellation.