Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin

SyFy has three new series. One is a cooking show.

Hvart ero that svic ein, er ec sia thicciomz,
eþa ragna roc, rítha menn dauthir?

Yes!

Leno's back to 11:30 as of February.

That's 5 more hours of primetime TV drama -- a couple dozen writer jobs -- and if Leno couldn't hack it at 10 pm, I doubt another network is going to try the same stunt.

This is a victory for quality programming over cheap programming.

God bless us one and all.

UPDATE: TMZ seems quite sure.

Leno's Not Helping

I'm thrilled to see that local NBC affiliates are unhappy about Leno's 10 pm show. Now that the original buzz has worn off,

Leno's new show averaged about 5.6 million viewers through the first four days of last week, less than half the audience it attracted when it premiered and more than a third less than the audience that NBC drew last season with its longtime schedule of drama shows. The network says the declines are in line with expectations and cautions patience as viewers discover the new time slot for the talk show king.

Yes, because viewership going down is typically consistent with viewers having to find the show. Not with their having found the show ... lacking.

This is what happens when you cheap out on scripted programming. Yeah, you save a few bucks on the programming. But you lose bucks on the ads. And,

NBC's controversial decision to shift the late-night talk show host to 10 p.m. has been ... playing havoc with many of NBC's more than 200 affiliates, where Leno's weaker "lead-in" is undermining audiences of 11 p.m. newscasts. News programs are crucial for local stations, which draw upon them for a third of their revenue.

That's cheery news for the, I dunno, 25-50 or so writers of the five hours of scripted shows that are currently not on the air? Maybe Leno can go back to late night and NBC can put on some new ten o'clock shows?