Who was at that meeting, anyway?
Jay Leno must have said, "I'm sure there's nothing people want to see more in prime time than a celebrity driving around a race track." Network executives nodded and pulled out a pile of money to build a track next to his studio.
Maybe someone should have said this: "No, Jay, people don't want to see this. Just you. There's a good reason why primetime TV went its first 60 years without a racetrack. It's not interesting."
Last week's driving by Drew Barrymore wasn't entertaining; neither were tonight's drives by Bob Costas and Al Michaels. The upcoming Rush Limbaugh one bears no promise.
Mostly, this takes us further away from what had been the stated goal of "The Jay Leno Show" -- non-stop comedy.
Tonight, the opening monolog, always first-rate, seemed truncated. It was six minutes, maybe, if you count a long, one-joke pseudo-commercial about Michael Vick dog food.
The correspondent bit -- Mikey Day pretending to be a celebrity photographer -- was pretty good; "Jaywalking" wasn't bad.
In between, however, was a long, slow spot. It included Vince Vaughn doing push-ups on a chair and Costas and Michaels driving.
Leno needs to get back to his strength -- longer monologs, more written humor in general. If you have a clever guest (a category that includes both Costas and Vaughn), let him talk. Don't have him do push-ups or drive a car. That seems to amuse the host, while giving viewers ample time to play with their TV remotes.