Mr. Leno had 18.4 million viewers last night, which proves…uh, not very much. Tonight, he'll probably have less than half of that and by the end of next week, we should have a pretty good idea where the numbers are going to settle in, at least for a while. NBC is surely happy with the total viewership last night, though a little disappointed at the demographics, which skewed older. Oddly enough, Conan O'Brien's ratings were up due to older viewers but he finished lower than usual with the 18-34 audience.

The success or failure of The Jay Leno Show is going to be a difficult thing to assess, because it will not wholly be about the ratings on his show. NBC is going to have to look at what he's delivering in terms of lead-in to the local news broadcasts that follow him all over the country. If they take a plunge, that won't bode well for Jay even if his numbers are okay. Likewise, NBC won't be thrilled if Jay does well but Conan seems to be hurt. Someone's probably going to do some sort of polling and statistical analysis to determine if The Jay Leno Show at 10 PM prompts more folks to go to bed earlier.

Cancer has this nasty habit of taking away screenwriters whose work I respected greatly. Troy Kennedy Martin died today at the age of 77. This obit will tell you some of this credits, which included the movies Kelly's Heroes, Red Heat and Red Dust, as well as a wonderful British TV series called Reilly, Ace of Spies.

A very uncomfortable moment in my life came about because Mr. Martin was hired to adapt a comic book I'd co-created — The DNAgents — for a TV series. He was the second of about eighty thousand writers (it seemed) to tackle the property during the several times it was optioned by CBS, and I was at first jubilant because I'd admired so much of his work. But then it became apparent that what he wanted to do with the series was not what I wanted, nor did it please co-creator, Will Meugniot. It also did not please CBS so we went on to Pilot Writer #3 and Pilot Writer #4 and so on.

But the odd thing is that what Mr. Martin wrote was quite brilliant and might have made a wonderful one-time (with no possible sequels) R-rated feature film. It was just wildly over the budget (and restrictions of sex and violence) for what it was supposed to be, which was a weekly, ongoing TV series that would air at 8 PM. I came across my copy of his script again a few years later and was struck by how well-written it was, even if it was all wrong for the assignment at hand. I still feel bad about the meeting where he asked me point-blank what I thought of it and I had to tell him it wouldn't do…because he was a very nice man and very passionate about his work. If you saw some of the things he wrote that did get filmed, I think you could tell that. They were all quite impressive.

Well, the first weekend in October, you'll find me at the Mid-Ohio-Con in Columbus, Ohio. They invite me to this one almost every year and if I can make it, I say yes. It's one of the friendliest conventions around…and a perfect one for those of you think Big Conventions have gotten Too Big. This one's large enough that you'll have plenty to see and do and buy…but not so big that you'll have to change the time zone on your PDA as you cross from one end of the Dealers Room to the other. I'll be hosting some panels there (including at least one Death Panel) and will post the schedule as soon as there is one. That's October 3 and 4.

Then the next appearance I have scheduled is November 7. I'll be on some panels or speaking or doing something — I'm not sure what yet — at the Vegas Valley Book Festival in Las Vegas, Nevada. They're having a comic book event there and they're bringing me in to appear at the Clark County Library…and I'll tell you more about that when I know it.

Lastly for now, here's an announcement that may matter to some of you. The 2010 WonderCon in San Francisco will be held April 2-4 at the Moscone Center. As per usual, I'll be a guest and I'll be doing panels and this is also a convention to which I always say yes because I always have a good time at them. Make whatever plans you have to…but try to be there.

I thought Jay Leno's first prime time show was fine. Didn't care for the theme and the pace seemed a bit sluggish here and there…but he delivered a nice-enough hour. I suppose the most disappointing thing about it was that there was nothing particularly new. Then again, I can't recall the last comedic innovation I saw on any of the four major networks. Those who were predisposed to like Leno will like the new series…though there's some question as to whether they'll watch as often as they did when he was on at 11:35, and whether they'll be joined by sufficient numbers of the previously-uncommitted.

And I suppose if you never liked Jay, you're not about to start now. Some of the early reviews I'm seeing on the 'net appear bewildered that anyone could or would. There seems to be a lack of recognition in some that Jay Leno is as successful as he is…a lot of "Well, I don't like him so I can't believe anyone else does." I find the guy charming and candid and based on seeing him off-stage a few times and talking with him and closer associates, I believe he honestly enjoys his show and guests as much as he seems to. His chat with Jerry Seinfeld was nice because he didn't compete with the guy…he just sat there, enjoying how funny his buddy was, stepping in now and then to do the host thing and keep it all moving. That's harder than it looks.

I dunno how it'll all do but if I had to wager, I'd guess a big tune-in for the first night and incrementally smaller ratings from here on, with the occasional bounce when a superstar or big event comes along. At some point, I think America will start taking the thing for granted and the ratings won't be grand. But then later, when the opposition is all reruns and Jay's all new, you'll see some recovery. Will overall earnings be sufficient for NBC to keep things in place indefinitely? Beats the heck outta me. But they're certainly getting the show they bargained for.

I'm going to reprint this Timothy Noah piece from Slate in its entirety…

Somebody forgot to tell doctors how terribly unpopular the public option is. Sixty-three percent of them support it, according to a new survey conducted by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, even though one of its chief purposes would be to pay doctors less. When Robert Pear wrote in the Sept. 12 New York Times that the public option "appears to be dying" partly because of "all-out opposition" by "much of the health care industry," he should have said, "except actual physicians."

Somebody forgot to tell the public, too. Fifty-five percent of them support it, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

What's the matter with 63% of doctors? Why do they want to destroy health care in this country?

Bernie Madoff's New York penthouse.

The other day here, I said that the Washington D.C. Fire Department had issued an estimate of 60,000-70,000 people for the 9/12 rally on the National Mall. A lot of sources were reporting that and it turns out that's wrong, too. The Fire Department says they never issued any sort of estimate.

Apparently, there is no such thing as an official estimate of crowd sizes in Washington, at least from any official department. Some used to issue such estimates but the organizers of events always got mad that the reports were lower than they claimed, and some even sued or threatened to sue. The press issues estimates but reporters don't usually have a lot of experience in this area, or access to data like police or transit reports. And of course, this is America where the media is always a pack of lying, biased weasels whenever they say something you don't want to believe is true.

FreedomWorks, a group which is described as the main organizer of the rally, has halved its original claim from 1.5 million to between 600,000 and 800,000. Some of their followers may believe that, some may stick with the original 1.5 million, and it doesn't matter that even some right-wing press said "tens of thousands." These folks will never believe that Obama isn't a lying, Kenyan-born Nazi who's planning to have his secret army throw political opponents into concentration camps. They might as well believe there were 700,000 of themselves there that day.

I dunno what to expect from Jay Leno's new show, which debuts tonight. I like Jay, both in terms of what I've seen of him onstage and off, though elements of his Tonight Show left me cold. I liked his monologues and when he had on a guest he truly liked, the conversations were a lot of fun to watch. I didn't like his reliance on "correspondents" or on the many bits that were devoted to the premise that there are a lot of really, really stupid people out there.

(For the record, I don't like it when Letterman does that, either — usually in some spot involving Rupert, the clueless deli owner around the corner. To his credit, Dave seems to have cut way back on Rupert lately, but he has resurrected what may just be the most childish recurring stunt ever on a talk show, which is to spray water on unsuspecting pedestrians. When I was eight, a kid down the block used to think the funniest thing in the world was to hide near the lawn sprinkler control and when people walked by, to suddenly turn on the H2O and douse them. It's the exact same bit and it hasn't gotten any cleverer.)

Back to Jay. An awful lot of folks out there seem to be rooting for his new show to fail. Those complaining it's taking work away from writers and actors are, I think, exaggerating the impact. Leno is hiring Writers Guild writers — 22 at last report, and rumor has it that some of them are getting paid quite well. They're also being hired year-round, as opposed to being around for 22 episodes and then sent home, and there will be union actors on the show, as well. That may not yield as many jobs as five nights of CSI-type shows in the same time slots, but it's an awful lot more than most reality and game shows have created. There are hours on prime time TV that employ no WGA writers, one or two AFTRA members as hosts…and that's it. There are also hours that take filming and all the production jobs and dollars to Canada, and Jay's show isn't doing that, either.

You also have people who never liked Jay on The Tonight Show…and I suppose they're not going to like him any more at 10:00. Since he's promising lot of "correspondents" and Jay Walking, I may not, either. But let's give the guy a chance. It is at least an attempt to put comedy on in prime time and how often have we gotten that, lately?

By the way: There's a live streaming webcam on Jay's set. You can tune in at any time and see what's happening there. Right now, a lot of folks seem to be walking around aimlessly. I hope that won't be a regular segment on the program.

So a little while ago, I'm surfing around the web and I glimpse an ad for Fujitsu Scanners. It shows a woman holding a knife and fork and sporting a big, crazed expression…

And then I click over to the website for the Excalibur Hotel in Las Vegas and there's a promotion there for an "all-day-long dining" option at their buffet. It contains this picture…

My, this lady gets around. And yes, I know both photos probably just came from a stock photo service. It was just odd to see them on two unrelated websites in a row. And hey, who's to say she isn't using her Fujitsu Scanner at the Excalibur Buffet?

Last night, I watched one of my favorite TV shows each year — the annual Chabad "To Life" Telethon. It's always fun, especially since they dispensed with Dennis Prager as host. Anyway, this year a featured guest was Triumph the Insult Comic Dog and he was quite hilarious, especially since he (i.e., Robert Smigel, his manipulator) seems to have convinced the rabbis to just go along with him, however bizarre it might be. Sorry you probably missed it but I'm told that a segment from Triumph's POV, as shot by his own camera crew, will be on The Tonight Show in the next few nights. We will watch and if possible, we will embed.