Jay Leno moves into prime-time

And so it begins, NBC's grand experiment of "The Jay Leno Show" in prime time. And it went .... pretty much like an episode of "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."

Leno came on stage, shook hands with members of the audience and then went into a monologue that ... seemed a lot like Leno's "Tonight Show" monologues with a nod to the hoopla surrounding this new program, which will air at 10 p.m. Monday through Friday.

"This is not another annoying promo, it's the actual show," Leno said. "I apologize for my face being all over the place."

(Aaron Barnhart of TVBarn tweeted that David Letterman made the same joke during his premiere as host of CBS's "The Late Show" back in 1993.)

And there was the requisite, innocuous political joke that's not really partisan: Regarding U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson's "You Lie!" during President Obama's address to congress last week, Leno said, "At least the two sides are talking."

After about 8 minutes of monologue, followed by a commercial, Leno brought on comic Dan Finnerty (the wedding singer in "The Hangover") who introduced a segment called "Everything's Better with Music." In it, Finnerty went to a car wash and seranaded a customer while her car was being washed (she kept backing away from him and then giggled at a sexually suggestive dance Finnerty and his dancers did with vacuum hoses, which might have cost Leno some viewers in the Midwest). It was an OK idea with clever moments but it went on far too long and began to feel like filler designed to push guests Jerry Seinfeld and Kanye West later into the hour so they'd lend ratings support to NBC affiliates' 11 p.m. newscasts.

Seinfeld came on and sat opposite Leno in matching blue armchairs, an awkward setup that cries out for a desk. (Some tweets referenced Leno's pant leg creeping up so high viewers might glimpse skin.)

"I'm just trying to grasp what's going on here because there was a big farewell show on 'The Tonight Show,'" Seinfeld said, bringing the funny. "You know in the '90s when we quit a show, we actually left. Not in the Lance Armstrong-Brett Favre double 0s. We take a three-day weekend and right back at it."

Leno claimed he couldn't get Oprah Winfrey for his first show but Seinfeld brought her in via satellite, possibly as part of Winfrey's ratings rehabilitation tour.

The next segment featured Leno "interviewing" President Obama, which was just Leno's questions edited with Obama's answers to different questions in a real interview.  Funniest line: Leno asked Obama about the growing popularity of the women on "The View" and Obama said, "The loudest, shrillest voices get the most attention."

Leno also asked Obama about his new show and the president said, "I guarantee you this will be pronounced dead."

Self-deprecating humor is all well and good but this might have gotten uncomfortably close to the truth.

Leno did benefit from Kanye West's idiocy at the MTV Video Music Awards. West had been booked to perform on Leno's show before the VMA kerfluffle and ended up sitting in the blue chair and apologizing before his music performance. (If there's anything worse than seeing a celeb act like an idiot, it's watching them grovel for forgiveness afterwards -- it's even more uncomfortable to observe.)

"It's been extremely difficult," West began. "I'm just dealing with the fact I hurt someone or took anything away from a talented artist or anyone."

Leno almost made West cry a little by asking what his dead mother would think of West's behavior. West wrapped up the apology segment, saying, "I need to just take some time off and analyze how I'm going to make it through the rest of this life."

The first episode of "The Jay Leno Show" wrapped up much the way it began: Looking a lot like Leno's "Tonight Show" with a segment of newspaper headline bloopers. And then it was straight to WPXI's 11 p.m. broadcast with "breaking news" of Patrick Swayze's death from pancreatic cancer. (Can news still be breaking when it's a death that happened hours earlier?)

Bottom line: If you watched Leno on "The Tonight Show," you'll probably watch him in prime time. If you didn't, I can't imagine why you would now, especially once original programming returns to ABC and CBS next week.

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