And For the Defense...

In the spirit of fairness, I wanted to link to Mark Evanier's well-written, well-reasoned defense of Jay Leno.

Evanier has written extensively on the latest NBC late-night brouhaha, and being in the business himself, has noted that (much like The Godfather) nearly all of this is business, not personal.

The only thing I wonder about what he's written (and he's said it more than once now) concerns the 10 p.m. lead-ins. Obviously Conan had a terrible lead-in with Jay's show, which was tanking at 10 p.m., but Evanier writes that for most of his tenure, Leno suffered from bad lead-ins as well. I'd like to see the evidence for that, because for all their faults, NBC has had some pretty successful shows at 10 p.m. over the years, including Law & Order and ER. It's one thing to write that, and while it could be true, I'd like to see the evidence.

Of course, why all this matters is anyone's guess. I find it fascinating.