Jay Leno 'not worried about new timeslot'

Jay Leno has claimed that he is not worried about the challenges faced by his new chatshow leading into the NBC affiliates' late local newscasts.

The decision to air The Jay Leno Show every weekday at 10pm has been met with criticism by some sectors who are angry that five hours of primetime drama has been replaced with a talkshow.

Speaking to the TV Critics summer tour, he said: "I've been doing this long enough to realise there is no NBC. NBC is a bunch of trailers over in Burbank. The real NBC is the affiliates and the people who kind of back the show and get behind the show.

"We want to provide a strong lead-in for the 11pm news. That will be our job... The signature pieces that people like on The Tonight Show - 'Headlines', 'Jaywalking' and '99-cent store' - stuff that has always done really well, those will be the pieces that bring us into the 11pm news."

He added: "When I was doing The Tonight Show, you sort of front-loaded the show. You'd have all your comedy from 11.35 to 12.00. Then you had that big six-minute commercial break. And that's where you lost them.

"You lost them to sleep, they have to get up early to go to work, whatever it might be. So then you'd come back, you'd have a comic or an actress from a second-string series, and then the music, 'Good night'.

"Now, you've just got to keep it going. It's been ratcheted up a bit. It will be a little bit more intense. There will be a lot more comedy in the show."

It was recently announced that Rihanna will head the lineup for the inaugural Jay Leno Show on September 14.