thus spake drake: jay leno

Say what you will about Jay Leno and the inanity of NBC's decision to hand him the entirety of the 10PM time slot, but the guy knows a good booking when he sees one. Jay-Z? Sure, it being the morning after the MTV Music Awards, Jay-Z is a good get, but the fact that Kanye West is joining him is prime trainwreck material, given his penchant for post-awards show blow-ups. [And this year he managed to even out Kanye himself, by self-destructing during the broadcast.] Rihanna even joins in the fun, giving Leno a three-for-one deal, which is good considering the show doesn't plan on booking many music acts.

But what of Jay-Z's decision to appear on Leno? I've got this theory when HOVA was planning out the marketing of his latest album, The Blueprint 3, he stumbled across the website Stuff White People Like. In the past couple weeks, Jigga man has sat down with Bill Maher on Real Time with Bill Maher, danced with Beyonce at a Grizzly Bear concert and been party to a (great) commercial for Rhapsody. At this rate, we might expect him to show up early Monday night to play some hacky sack with a plate of hummus in hand.

Also returning to TV this week is Carson Daly, whose Last Call With... program took the whole summer off. It was sad enough that they took away Daly's studio, forcing the talk show to operate nomadically from the road for the past year. Last Call welcomes Franz Ferdinand (Monday), Metric (Tuesday) and Pete Yorn* (Wednesday) for its return, but will it be enough to keep folks watching after NBC's three hours of talk shows prior?

*Let's start a rumor now that ex-girlfriend and album partner Scarlett Johansson will join him.