Jay Leno will return to his previous time slot as the host of ‘The Tonight Show’ on Monday night. Nine months after Conan O’Brien took the place of Leno as the host of Tonight, the 59-year-old talk show host is now back to take on his old job.
The return of Leno follows the ratings slump for both his and O’Brien’s shows. The incident led to a controversial shake-up that put Leno up against O’Brien, who eventually left NBC after being booted out of his own time slot to give way for the return of Leno.
Media critic Andrew Wallenstein predicted that Leno’s performance will be highly observed by his employers at NBC, which has garnered much success for its Vancouver Olympics coverage.
“The success of the Olympics certainly puts additional pressure on Leno to win the gold in terms of late night ratings”, Wallenstein told CNN.
He added that Leno has to win back the viewers that put him on top for more than 10 years, especially those who have started tuning in to the ’Late Show’ of David Letterman.
“So many of his viewers who were conditioned to watch him at 11:30 may have gone on and found new viewing habits”, said Wallenstein. “This will be the test”.
Leno will also try to bring his image back after being the butt of jokes during the NBC fiasco.
The battering came down hard on the comic host, who responded that he has been treated unfairly, yet he will “work hard to try and rehabilitate that image”.
To help him get back on track, Leno’s guests for the first week will include actor Jamie Foxx, Olympic gold medal winner Lindsey Vonn, GOP presidential candidate Sarah Palin, and musician Adam Lambert.
