Pulling something from the old...

As a man, I am fascinated by the fall of leaders, and while politicians are the ones who legislate, it is the court jester who often makes us think about their decisions.

In various monarchies, it was only the court jester who was allowed to question the king, as along as he did so in a comedic fashion.

Before Jon Stewart became the most trusted man in news, Jay Leno's nightly monologue was poking fun at President Clinton and whether or not a blow job counts as sex.

And now, Jay Leno doesn't quite know where he belongs. Sure, he's as funny as he was at 11:30, but when he got moved to 10PM, he couldn't compete with procedural dramas and left NBC's flagship drama like Law & Order without a home.

A little over a year ago, in a previous blog, I wrote about how bad of an idea "The Jay Leno Show" was. Here's a reposting of that:

"An Open Letter to Jay Leno.

Dear Jay,

You know we love you. Really, we do, and honestly I would love to see you stay as host of the Tonight Show for many years to come. However, you have decided to say goodbye to that job and we respect that. HOWEVER, why are you seriously considering, or at this point I should ask why you have chosen to taint this record with your upcoming 10PM timeslot television show. Now, assuming that you are going to continue in a similar format as you have with The Tonight Show, you are setting yourself up for failure.

The Tonight Show is, for lack of a better term, an over-glorified variety show veiled by your wit and charm holding it together under an NBC flagship title. It's what it's always been and it lives or dies with its host. However, the TV landscape as it stands has several 10PM timeslot "hits" up against you, such as several CSI incarnations as well as a Grey's Anatomy spinoff. These are shows you cannot compete against, nor will you be able to compete when ABC decides to move some of it's already popular shows up against your 10PM timeslot for no other purpose than to beat you.

Yes, it's true, three other networks already don't even have programming after 10PM, but was NBC ever considering The CW or myTV as serious competition? Fox, while offering some quality, currently lives quite well off of its Cash Cow, American Idol, and therefore can put basically program however it wants to, but if this season and Ben Silverman's leadership is any indication, NBC can't. Your program will be put up against Grey's Anatomy and lose. Your program will be put up against CSI and lose. In other words, Jay Leno will lose, and that is a shame because he hasn't lost for a very long time.

You are a very funny man Mister Leno, but even Johnny Carson knew when it was time to hang up the jacket. Stick around, have fun, shoot a few prime time specials and go do more voice-over and movie work. But your soapbox rose up nightly at 11:30, and at 10PM, you're just shouting at an empty box while your formerly devoted fans find their new hunk, Dr. McDreamy."

So here's my question, if a fan like me saw this coming...why didn't NBC?