RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Media Conan

A first-run episode of "The Jay Leno Show" had been pulling in a little over 4 million viewers a night before it was canced on February 9. This week, a repeat of "SVU" drew 5.98 million viewers. (To be fair, Jay's finale on Tuesday night drew 5.8 million viewers.) However, the "SVU" episode was not just a repeat. It was a repeat of a repeat. The episode, "Hardwired," had already run twice before, on October 21 and October 24, making it the third airing of the show.

When they decided to air "The Jay Leno Show" at the unprecedented talk-show hour of 10 p.m., NBC knew they were taking a leap of faith that fans of the host would tune in earlier. Still, the network's thinking was this: When the other networks started repeats of their own 10 p.m. dramas, Leno would thrive. They probably never expected that it would take airing reruns of their own to drive a jump in ratings.

NBC's decision to remove five hours of scripted programming a week from its primetime lineup was not a popular decision. Not only would this mean fewer primetime dramas in general, it would also mean the end to many shows that, due to their more mature content, couldn't air at an earlier time.

Last season, after "ER" ended its 15-year run in April, NBC aired a new police drama, "Southland," in the Thursday night 10 p.m. timeslot. "Southland's" first two episodes drew over 9.5 million viewers each, and consistently drew more than 6.5 million viewers during its seven-episode run. "Southland," even with higher ratings, was eventually canceled by NBC. The network deemed the show "too dark" for an earlier 9 p.m. time slot -- in favor of the cheaper-to-produce "Jay Leno Show." "Southland" was eventually saved from cancellation by TNT.

One of "Southland's" stars, Michael Cudlitz, was not thrilled with NBC's decision to discontinue airing his show. He told Entertainment Weekly "What audience are they afraid of pissing off? They don't have an audience."