Though it’s hard for yours truly to embrace Jay Leno or his MOR brand of humor, the man and his network are sure trying to make advertisers feel differently at least.
The Wall Street Journal reports that for The Jay Leno Show, which premieres this Monday, advertisers are paying “half of what they’d spend per commercial in new episodes of dramas on competing networks at the same time of night.”
According to WSJ, spots for the new Leno show are running between $55,000 and $75,000 for 30 seconds. With the low ad costs comes lower production costs as NBC is also apparently spending only $100 million on Jay Leno per year, which is pretty stingy when compared to the $300 mil the network drops for dramas and reruns in the same timeslot. Add to that the fact that NBC expects one-third fewer viewers between 18 and 49 and you have a show that despite the huge marketing push behind it seems plagued by low expectactions.
While he’s also not averse to product placements according to Time, the former Tonight show host probably has a bigger challenge than paying the bills: finding an audience to somehow watch bits like celebrities competing in a “green car challenge.”
More: “Wake Up, Al”