Leno back to late night? UPDATE

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on January 7th, 2010

From Deadline.com comes all kinds of new info in the ever-changing landscape at NBC! It’s a shootout!

That’s the word on the street. From Bill Carter, blogging for the NYT:

And while executives said that no final decision has been made, they did not deny that the network is considering moves that could include returning Mr. Leno to his old job as host of The Tonight Show.

Emphasis ours. The inclusion of “could include” makes this interesting. Allegedly, the affiliates are peeved that their newscasts are suffering because of the 10 PM show’s weak lead-in.

Earlier, Carter blogged that a rumor “that appeared on a Web site called FTVLive, was followed by an interview with its author on KNX radio in Los Angeles, who cited network sources saying Mr. Leno’s show would be dropped, perhaps as soon as after NBC’s coverage of the Winter Olympics concludes next month.”

Will Conan hold his ground? Can he? Will he get bought out? Whatever will they do with Jimmy Fallon? Will Leno end up on Fox?

Will there be a bunch of writers, tech dudes and others stranded in SoCal? (We can think of worse things.)

Or it might end up with Conan at 12:30, doing it from L.A., Leno at 11:30, just like old times, Fallon bumped to 1:30. What becomes of Carson Daly?!?