Jay Leno

When former “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno announced his move to prime time to debut “The Jay Leno Show,” reports said the show had the potential to revolutionize the 10 o’clock hour, causing other networks to abandon the usual scripted dramas for the cheaper talk show production costs five nights a week.

But since its debut, “The Jay Leno Show” has been making news for entirely different reasons.

It had a very strong start despite a bit of critical drubbing for its all-too-familiar “Tonight Show” formula. But since then, the show’s ratings have dropped drastically. Now if you look into how “The Jay Leno Show” is doing, you don’t learn about its success as much as what types of shows are beating it.

The New York Times reported that in late October, a new “Leno” was beaten in ratings by an old “C.S.I.: Miami” re-run in the 18-49 demographic. Lesson: Never underestimate the intrigue of David Caruso intensely staring behind sunglasses. In the same month, the FX network original series “Sons of Anarchy” became the first basic cable show to run over Leno’s show in the same ratings demo at the same time. I guess fake biker outlaws are more exciting than Leno’s “Green Car Challenge” skit. And if that wasn’t enough, many of NBC’s affiliates are outraged because Leno’s poor ratings lead-in is hurting the local news audience.

But despite these troubles, Leno seems optimistic. In a recent interview with Broadcasting & Cable, Leno talked about how his show is still making money for NBC despite its ratings and that he enjoys being the underdog. Whether or not “The Jay Leno Show” picks up in ratings or remains on the air is one thing, but what Jay Leno’s move to prime time has done has revealed something else. You don’t screw with the formula.

And by the formula, I mean the programming of major networks. Television audiences have been practically conditioned to want to see certain types of shows at certain times for decades. People plan their days based on what is on TV, but more than that, they prepare themselves for what they are ready to take in at a given time.

This doesn’t mean that TV can’t break new ground with the shows themselves. But no matter how good “The Sopranos” was, HBO wasn’t going to throw it on anywhere else than prime time. That’s when audiences are expecting TV that is engrossing, exciting and at its creative and dramatic peak. So, when you tune in for Leno and he has Fox sportscaster and NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Terry Bradshaw making game picks opposite a chicken, it might not be what most people want to see anywhere other than late-night hours.

Considering that NBC is ranked fourth among the four major networks, it may continue to stick with Leno simply for profit’s sake. NBC’s experiment will probably continue make headlines that are not related to Leno’s trademark bit of the same name. But if things keep going the way they are, I don’t think it will be any laughing matter.