NBC drops Leno from prime time, orders new dramas

NBC said Sunday that it was abandoning its cost-cutting prime time experiment with talk show host Jay Leno, and was "going back to basics" by ordering up a slate of new scripted dramas and comedies. NBC Universal television entertainment chairman Jeff Gaspin told television reporters that because of pressure from its local affiliates, starting Feb. 12 "The Jay Leno Show" would no longer air in the 10 p.m. slot it had occupied five nights a week since September 2009.