The Herald Bulletin, Anderson, Indiana

So, Jay Leno, whose show I personally don't favor, has been tapped by NBC to serve his post-"Tonight Show" career as a host in the 10 p.m. slot ... five nights a week.

This is a catastrophe waiting to happen. At least I think so. And here's why.

NBC did this for several reasons, the major ones being that Leno draws big ratings and the network wants to bring down the costs of prime-time programming, that is, those big, expensive shows that pop up between 8 and 11 p.m. on the big three networks.

Putting Leno's basic show as it is now on at 10 p.m. would probably be a huge cost savings in this economy. No costly location shooting, no big-name regular cast members. Cheap and quick.

And NBC could use some help. Its big deal for the season, the new "Knight Rider," skidded into a curb and burst into flames. "Heroes" has lost its powers. "ER," once the big gun in prime time drama, is limping toward its last episode.

So what's the downside in putting Leno on at 10 p.m.? Simple.

There's no point. What does Leno bring to prime time? Viewers, I think, want to see things that are interesting and new, but yet, somewhat familiar.

Leno ain't that. He's a big, bombastic club comic whose ratings have been inexplicably sustained despite his tired joke delivery and inability to really listen to any of his guests.

Of course, to be fair, Ed Sullivan was a dull, reactionary newspaper columnist. And he did OK.

Letterman can at least listen and keep a conversation going. He can be erratic in terms of laughs, but he's Babe Ruth in his later years. He's not consistent, but when he hits one, it's out of the park.

By comparison, in my eyes, Leno is Bob Uecker.

And the original concept of this deal -- a variety show -- was torpedoed by Rosie O'Donnell's recent on-camera disaster on the same network, a variety "special" that was essentially a backdoor pilot. If it had succeeded, it would have revived the variety formst.

According to The Associated Press, the Nov. 26 show ranked No. 81 in Nielsen's weekly prime-time rankings, below a show on Univision, for crying out loud.

But that had nothing to do with the variety format, and if programmers were smart, they'd realize that. It had to do with the fact that Rosie O'Donnell is not a comfortable personality over extended periods of time. Like minutes.

Leno could do a modified variety show, and it could work. But to transplant his show to prime time seems to be a mistake. Prime time is called that for a reason. And Leno is not special.

Maybe this is just one of the first reverberations of the bad economy, one of the little inconveniences we'll have to live with until the big inconveniences hit.