08.06.09 LENO’S SHOW HAS BELLS, WHISTLES, RACES

On the same day that NBC had to dial back its fulsome praise of Conan O’Brien as the “King of Late Night” – he’s really more the ginger knight-errant of late night – Jay Leno, the Brett Favre (Land Baron) of late night, unveiled details about the format of his upcoming hour-long 10 p.m. suckfest.

Among the gimmicks on parade will be simultaneous performances by different musical acts (CACOPHONY! AWESOME!), NBC News anchor Brian Williams doing jokes, a shorter intro, only one or two celebrity guests per show (thus granting more time for Jay not to be funny), and, naturally, it wouldn’t be NBC without some empty posturing about the environment.

Leno also previewed some segments, such as the advertiser-friendly “Green Car Challenge,” where celebrities race against each other in alternative fuel vehicles. NBC has built a race track next to the studio where guests can compete against each other.

Admittedly, it’s a concept that could be entertaining, say, once, maybe even a few times, but if NBC actually ponied up the money to build him a race track, you know that thing is going to be done to death. And by that, I mean I hope they continue to race stars until somebody dies in a flaming wreck. Adrian Grenier, maybe?