Via The Christian Science Monitor’s Jimmy Orr (I predicted to friends this would happen):
So Sarah Palin is going on Jay Leno. Yep, NBC announced Leno’s first week line-up today. And Palin is on night number two.
Shouldn’t be that much of a surprise. Leno needs ratings bad. Worse than Olbermann-bad. Leno’s gotta show he can score. And who can bring in the numbers? Sarah Palin.
Yes you willOh, you’ll watch. Who won’t?
Her supporters will tune in because to them she can say no wrong. She’s the political messiah.
Her detractors will because they want to see what happens. They’re just hoping for a Hindenburg.
For ratings, she’s hot — like that old Buster Poindexter song (which is impossible to get out of your head once you think about it. Sorry).
Line upPalin will appear next Tuesday night alongside American Olympics hero Shaun White. In fact, two other Olympians will join Jay his first week back. He’s got Lindsey Vonn and Apollo Ohno too…
Go to the link to read the rest of Leno’s line up.
This was virtually preordained from the start. Leno needs to get ratings — big ratings — to try and recoup damage to his brand. Rightfully or wrongfully, he has come out in the media narrative as Mr. Not Nice guy — a baby boomer who simply can’t let go and could not allow a newer generation member struggle to succeed. To be sure, Conan O’Brien struggled, and NBC will likely stem the financial loss due to O’Brien never quite making the shift from quirky post-late-night host to Tonight Show host.
But Leno has a problem. He came out looking like a graying baby boomer clinging to fame and clawing his way back into his old time slot in the Dumping Conan O’Brien saga. And when NBC chose him over David Letterman in 1992 even though Leno ultimate;y became Prince of Late Night (it could be argued there was NO King after Johnny Carson retired) he acquired the reputation of a guy who know how to play the corporate kiss-the-affiliates’-you-know-whats game (more so than Letterman who Carson had wanted to succeed him).
So the question has been whether Leno can regain his ratings mojo. Palin will help him for one night. But it’s an appearance that could hurt him, too:
But he’s guaranteed the ratings with Palin.
Attention David Letterman: Are you on the phone yet trying to book Tiger Woods?
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.