Kasz, how do you expect a talk show that's on for 5 nights a week to score on average 10 million viewers a night? Leno ain't Oprah and everyone, including NBC expected the ratings he got. They planned around it so that the show would be profitable.
And by what you're saying, you expect viewers to watch through the news and carry on to O'Brien's show? And that O'Brien isn't attracting viewers on his own? This is the blame Leno approach everyone seems to be taking. The fact remains that Leno is more popular than O'Brien and attracts a wider audience. NBC knows that which is why they don't want Leno on another network.