[IMG:L]Tonight Show with Jay Leno — 11:35/10:35c on NBC
Just how desperate is NBC in the wake of the writers strike? Well, maybe no more desperate than any of the other scrambling networks, but the Peacock has become more creative.
Beginning yesterday, NBC turned The Tonight Show into a fun-for-all free-for-all as we wait with baited breath for a resolution to the WGA strike and the subsequent return of late-night TV.
Til then, though, the Leno reruns will be much more worth watching than the mere re-airings of shows taped just prior to the strike.
Instead of those “new reruns,” NBC is now serving up Tonight Shows featuring megastars in their first “headlining” appearances.
Last night was Tom Hanks from 1992; tonight is Julia Roberts from 1993; Friday caps off this week’s theme-y string of shows in superb fashion, as Johnny Depp is featured from way back in ’95, well before he was Jack Sparrow and when he squirmed even more in front of a live audience.
ALSO…
[IMG:R]Dancing with the Stars — 9/8c on ABC
As was advertised in this space yesterday, and as is by now common knowledge to most everyone in the nation, DWTS officially wraps up tonight with a two-hour spectacular, a la American Idol’s closeout. Melanie Brown, Helio Castroneves and Marie Osmond can only wait anxiously on tonight’s results in hopes of becoming the next…Apolo Anton Ohno! Celine Dion, meanwhile, performs “My Heart Will Go On” and “Taking Chances” for tonight’s finale.
