Jerry Seinfeld set to take Jay Leno's 10 o'clock Thursday slot?

Oh, NBC, what a mess. Not yelling at you. Merely speaking the truth.

Let's review: You gave up on scripted television at 10 o'clock, moved Jay Leno into that hour five days a week, watched this idea tank and then decided to bump Conan O'Brien's 7-month-old "Tonight Show" to 12:05 so Leno could return to 11:30.

And then Conan essentially quit.

And now we're not sure what is going to happen.

But word is, you are.

NBC Universal TV chairman Jeff Gaspin told reporters on Sunday (Jan. 10) at the Television Critics TV Press Tour that no decisions had been made and he planned on taking as much time as possible to solidify the schedule.

The network could potentially wait until mid-February when "The Jay Leno Show" goes off the air and perhaps even until early March after the 2010 Winter Olympics to announce its new 10 o'clock shows, but it sounds as though we could be hearing far sooner than that.

Insiders tell Zap2it exclusively that NBC has already decided what will fill the 10 o'clock time slots Leno is vacating and could make an announcement as early as this week.

NBC says that they cannot comment at this time, but sources tell us that the Jerry Seinfeld-produced reality series "The Marriage Ref" is already set to take 10 o'clock on Thursdays and the other four nights of the week have been tentatively scheduled as well.

It seems fitting for "The Jay Leno Show"'s first guest, Seinfeld, to not only take over one of the hours "Leno" is vacating, but to return to his old Thursday night stomping grounds.

With NBC getting pummeled left-and-right by both media watchers and its own talent pool, Seinfeld took the rare approach of actually defending the network.

"I think ['The Jay Leno Show'] was also the right idea at the wrong time, and it was not a bad idea. And I'm proud of NBC that they had the guts to try something so different and original," Seinfeld told reporters on Sunday at a press panel for "The Marriage Ref." "And, you know, now you go on and do something else. That's show business. You just got to try things."

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Related:

After 'Leno': The return of 10 pm at NBC
Conan O'Brien: I won't do 'The Tonight Show' at 12:05
'The Tonight Show': Conan O'Brien keeps humor while slamming NBC
Conan addresses NBC rumors on 'Tonight Show'
Leno breaks silence on NBC mess
'The Jay Leno Show' leaves primetime in February


Photo credit: NBC