NBC's post-'Leno Show' ratings up, and more

We knew the "Jay Leno Show" experiment was a failure. Now we really know it was a failure. Since the show left the air (not including the Olympics), the NBC 10 p.m. audience has increased by 45 percent, according to the AP. Leno was averaging 5.15 million; the current NBC lineup -- including "Law & Order," "Parenthood," "Law & Order: SVU," and "The Marriage Ref" -- has been averaging 7.44 million. These new NBC ratings aren't very good, mind you, but they are better than awful.

There are a few things you can read into those 10 p.m. numbers -- the power of promoting shows during the Olympics, or the need for audiences to be a little sleepy in order to appreciate Leno, who is still winning at 11:35. But I think there is definitely a statement in there about prime time TV, too -- that viewers prefer a variety of shows across a week, as well as more conventional scripted fare.

Also, Jimmy Kimmel was on David Letterman last night, and he gave Letterman some friendly guff for doing that Super Bowl ad with Leno and Oprah: "We were drowning him, and you threw a life saver out there during the Super Bowl." (I fully agree with Kimmel.) About going after Leno during the Leno-Conan-NBC mess, Letterman said: "What I loved about it -- it was fun, it was funny, and nobody got hurt. The only people who got hurt was NBC. They lost hundreds of millions of dollars. We don't care about NBC. I mean, Jay didn't get hurt, you didn't get hurt, Conan didn't get hurt, I certainly didn't get hurt, and it was just a lot of fun."