10pm

Every year as Festivus comes, we here at TV Squad pump out these "all I want" lists and I always end up feeling guilty because, like everyone else, I come up with a ton of different requests...

I hope Lost is good.
Please don't let 24 suck.
Why can't Rachael Ray just disappear already?

...and on and on and on. Well not this year. This year I'm going to be conservative instead of greedy in the hopes that the Festivus gods will grant my one and only wish:

Come May 2009, please let Jay Leno fail in the 10PM time slot.

I'm sure a lot of "end of the year" lists are going to have to be scrapped and started again because of this whole last-minute, December-to-remember announcement about Jay Leno getting the 10pm time slot every single night on NBC. In a year that saw the writers strike, the Fey/Palin stuff, and the election, this might turn out to be an even bigger story. But it could have been a rather different story if Leno had said yes to the first offer made by NBC.

They were going to give him a half hour every night at 8pm.

That's one of the many revelations in this interview (link goes directly to audio) that Ryan Seacrest did with NBC chief Ben Silverman on his radio show yesterday. Silverman also offered Leno the chance to go either on cable or on syndication, but Leno said he wanted the 10pm slot. They also offered Leno 12 new cars, a free subscription to Martha Stewart Living, a brand new platinum bidet, and one year of meats from the Meat of the Month Club.