Jay Leno showed up before TV critics in Pasadena yesterday and spilled some more details about The Jay Leno Show, which will be airing on NBC a thousand hours every week starting Sept. 14. Among the plans for the new show:
* NBC News’ own Brian Williams will contribute comedy in a recurring segment about stories not good enough for the Nightly News
* A set of comedian correspondents, including D.L. Hughley, Rachael Harris from The Hangover, The Dan Band with Dan Finnerty from The Hangover (basically anyone who was in The Hangover will be on TV this fall) and Opie & Anthony’s Jim Norton
* A racetrack is being built behind the studio to host celebrity “green” car races, using electric-powered Ford Focuses
* The shows will close with familiar bits, like Jaywalking and Headlines
Celebs in cars! More Jaywalking! Some of this—as well as the fact that the show will have fewer interviews and dispense with or de-emphasize the desk—has been out there, but the Brian Williams casting is news. Williams has enough of a dry sense of humor that I could see this working.
Beyond that, though, does any of this make you more eager to watch The Jay Leno Show? Or will you be going to bed at 9:59 this fall? (And have all those commercials about “Jay at 10” been alienating those of you in the much-overlooked Central Time Zone?)