ROBERT SIEGEL, host:
NBC executives are not having an easy time since their decision to move Jay Leno back to late night. Today, "The Tonight Show" host Conan O'Brien released a statement saying that he did not want to move his show back after midnight to make room for Leno. He wrote this about "The Tonight Show": I cannot participate in what I honestly believe is its destruction. O'Brien did not say that he was quitting the show or the network.
MELISSA BLOCK, host:
NBC has not one programming problem, but many: How to rearrange its late night and how to fill five empty hours of primetime. Commentator Andrew Wallenstein says there's one show that's going to benefit from the whole mess. You can watch it tonight, just not on NBC.
ANDREW WALLENSTEIN: Try as NBC might to restore order to its schedule, there's damage that can't be undone: "Southland."
(Soundbite of TV show, "Southland")
Unidentified Man #1: Put your hands on the car, palms down.
WALLENSTEIN: It's a gritty show that followed the LAPD on the mean streets of Los Angeles.
(Soundbite of TV show, "Southland")
Unidentified Man #1: Get out of the car.
Unidentified Man #2: Why do I have to get out of the car?
Unidentified Man #1: Get out of the car now, (BEEP).
Unidentified Man #2: Do you know who my father is?
Unidentified Man #1: Why? Your mother didn't tell you?
WALLENSTEIN: When it started last April, "Southland" seemed as if it was going to follow in the tradition of great NBC cop dramas like "Dragnet" and "Hill Street Blues."
(Soundbite of TV program, "Southland")
Unidentified Man #2: I'm being punked, right?
Unidentified Man #1: Search the car.
Unidentified Man #2: Hey, you're making a big mistake. You can't search my car without just cause.
Unidentified Man #1: You've been watching way too much TV, dude.
WALLENSTEIN: But in October, NBC shocked the TV world by canceling it just two weeks before its second season was to begin. "Southland" was created by one of TV's top producers, John Wells, who seemed to be bringing NBC the kind of praise he had delivered before with "ER" and "The West Wing." But to understand the show's ouster, one must blame Leno.
Shifting Leno to 10 p.m. five nights a week meant shows like "Southland" were pushed to 9 p.m., which isn't traditionally the place broadcast schedules its edgiest fare. Thank heavens for cable network TNT, which snapped up rights to the show, they are replaying its first season beginning tonight. In March, the never-seen second season will unspool.
Now, basic cable may seem like a demotion, but networks like TNT have an increasingly strong track record nurturing hit dramas like "The Closer" and "Saving Grace." Plus, cable affords shows the creative license they need to be as gritty as they want. So, listen for a few less bleeps on "Southland" this time around.
So don't go feeling sorry for "Southland." If you want to send condolences to the casualties of NBC's implosion, try its local affiliates or maybe even Conan O'Brien, but "Southland" is just where it should be.
BLOCK: That commentary from Andrew Wallenstein of the Hollywood Reporter.