Leno's new prime-time show will result in a lot of lost jobs in Hollywood

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. — Jay Leno is happy that he'll be taking over five hours of NBC's prime-time schedule (Monday-Friday, 9-10 p.m.) in the fall. NBC executives are certainly happy about it.

But not everybody at NBC is quite so thrilled. Like one of the stars of the network's last remaining hit drama series, "Law & Order: SVU."

"Jay Leno, of course, is going to be on every night, meaning that thousands of people will be out of work — actors, producers, writers, wardrobe people," said Richard Belzer, who's played Det. John Munch on "SVU" since 1999 and the same character on "Homicide: Life On the Street" for six years before that.

"It may be good for comedy, in a limited way, but it's a terrible, terrible trend for network television to take five hours of prime time."

Belzer, a comedian himself, made it clear he was in no way criticizing Leno. But he wasn't shy about expressing how he feels about his longtime network home.

"I'm not denigrating Jay or his show. I just think it's a network that is desperate, " Belzer said (He added that he's already signed a contract for the 2009-10 season of "SVU," so there's not much the network can do to him no matter how unhappy executives might be about his comments.)

And, as is his way, Belzer didn't hold back about what he thinks this means for NBC.

"It's the last gasp of a dying network, he said, acknowledging that it "could turn out to be brilliant in terms of financially. But in terms of actors, writers, producers and all these people, I think it's a tragedy, frankly."

Putting Leno on from 9-10 p.m. means that shows like "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" — which deals with sex crimes every week — will air no later than 8 p.m. when NBC rolls out its fall schedule. And there's been no indication that the show will tone down its adult content when it moves to an earlier time slot.

"That's actually a good question because we do deal with some very dark issues of human sexuality. And, unfortunately, people never stop doing bad things to each other so we never run out of stories, " Belzer said. "We haven't heard anything from the network about toning it down. I doubt if we will, but it's certainly a legitimate question."

GOOD ANSWER: CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler was asked about her network picking up more episodes of the made-in-Toronto series "Flashpoint" and what she sees as "the future of going to foreign sources for prime-time programming."

"Well, I mean, Canada isn't THAT foreign," she said.