The Jay Leno Show: Preview, Guests, Comedy Bits and More

'The Jay Leno Show' Preview: What to Expect

We know his first guest (Jerry Seinfeld); we know that his show's Monday-to-Friday, 10PM time slot has fans of scripted fare worried; and we know that the show will be a mix of celebrity chats, musical performances, Leno's interaction with out-of-studio regular folk and segments with comedian correspondents, but what's the rest of the scoop on the premiere of 'The Jay Leno Show,' network TV's first-ever nightly primetime "entertainment" series? Read on. -- By Kimberly Potts


The Guests: Jerry Seinfeld, who'll be talking about his 'Seinfeld' cast reunion on 'Curb Your Enthusiasm,' is Leno's first official guest, but the Sept. 14 premiere will also include the 'Jay Leno Show''s first musical guest: Jay-Z, with a little help from his friends Kanye West and Rihanna. The rest of the week's lineup: Tom Cruise on Sept. 15; Robin Williams and Miley Cyrus on Sept. 16; and Halle Berry and Eric Clapton on Sept. 17.

The Old Bits: Leno will continue doing his trademark "Headlines" segment (which kicks off with the Sept. 14 debut episode), as well as "Jaywalking," celeb chats, musical performances (frequently several acts performing together, as in the Jay-Z/Kanye West/Rihanna pairing in the opener, and the Eric Clapton/Bruce Hornsby performance on Sept. 17) and his opening monologue.

The New Bits:

• "10 at 10," a feature rumored to be a celebrity Q+A that Leno will kick off on Sept. 15 with Cruise and Cyrus on Sept. 16

• Spots called "House Calls" (Sept. 15) and "Dealing With the Public" (Sept. 17)

• A segment with new correspondents Hamish and Andy, Australian comedians and TV stars. On the Sept. 16 episode, the two will make their 'Leno Show' premiere by introducing their sport, "Ghosting," a.k.a. "Personal Space Invading"

• Other correspondents will include D.L. Hughley (reporting on politics), Rachel Harris and NBC news anchor Brian Williams, who will introduce "Stories Not Good Enough for Nightly News"

• "Green Car Racing," in which celebs are pitted against each other in a race featuring alternative-fuel vehicles

The Desk: Leno insists he will not have a desk for the entire show, though has admitted that he may be sitting at/behind one for the show's closing segment each night, when he's reading headlines, for example.

The Wrap: Leno plans to end each episode with a comedy segment and will then pass viewers off to local affiliate programming. Those affiliates are being urged to skip commercials in between and instead, let 'Leno' flow into the local news.

The Questions: Aside from the concerns that the potential success of a cheaper-to-produce-than-scripted-fare nightly talk/"entertainment" show will lead to a glut of such shows in primetime, leaving even less room for TV dramas, the premiere of 'The Jay Leno Show' also begs some other questions:

• Can the comedian continue to pack his schedule with top guests after his premiere week? Between daytime talk shows like 'Oprah,' 'Ellen' and 'The View,' plus late-night shows with David Letterman, Conan O'Brien, Craig Ferguson, Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon, are there enough A-listers to go around, or will Leno's post-premiere schedule be loaded with B-listers and filler bits?

• Have the other networks -- ABC, CBS and Fox, namely -- really banned their series' stars from appearing on Leno's new show? That's been the rumor for months, though, technically, Cyrus is a star of ABC's sister cable network, the Disney Channel.

• And most importantly, will viewers tune in for yet another talk show, instead of dramas like 'CSI: Miami,' 'The Mentalist,' 'Numb3rs' and new series 'The Good Wife' and 'The Forgotten'? Leno himself says yes, but only when the shows are in repeats. "Do I expect to beat 'CSI: Miami'? No," he told critics at the TCA gathering in Los Angeles last month. "Do I expect to beat them in repeats? Yeah. I don't expect to get them on the straights but catch them in the corners."