Television Programs

Late-night king Jay Leno may be turning from a winner to an also-ran for NBC. Companies that buy broadcast television time at 10 p.m., when Leno's new show will air weekdays starting in September, won't spend as much on him as on his ABC and CBS competition, said Andy Donchin, director of TV ad buying at Carat USA in New York. "Leno won't win the time period," Donchin said. "Advertisers aren't going to pay the same for Leno as they pay for a 10 o'clock original, prime-time scripted drama."

The end is near once again for John Wells. It's staring him in the face. The executive producer of one of television's groundbreaking shows sits with 45 pages of notes on his desk, a keyboard in his lap and a computer before him as he slowly taps out the final script to NBC's long-running medical drama "ER." While Wells knows generally how the show -- set to air April 2 -- will end, there are many details to work out -- like exactly how George Clooney, who played Dr.

Now that Gil Grissom has left the building, we can get acquainted with a simple truth: Thursday nights on network TV are totally up for grabs. When William L. Petersen left "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" after more than eight seasons playing the crusty forensics ace Grissom, the dynamics of television's most important night -- when marketers try to hit viewers planning their weekends -- changed yet again. And no one really knows where things will end up.

It's hard not to view Julius Robert Oppenheimer, the man often called the Father of the Atomic Bomb, as a tragic figure. His work directing the Manhattan Project ended a war but also ensured that we'd never again know total peace, the means of self-destruction having been brought to term. Which bothered him. As portrayed in "The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer," a rather moving "American Experience" documentary airing tonight on PBS, Oppenheimer was poorly cast as a weapons-grade Prometheus.

Digital podcasts and streaming video might bring Christian audiences inspirational messages in the future, but they aren't bringing in the cash that broadcast ministries need to weather a painful economy. To make ends meet, religious broadcasters are tightening their belts and going back to basics. That means sticking with time-tested formulas, postponing innovations and counting on loyal (largely senior) audiences to keep donating even when it hurts.

It's been hard to avoid the music of rapper T.I. over the last year, with his No. 1 hits "Whatever You Like" and "Live Your Life" blaring from nightclubs, iPod headphones and car stereos everywhere. But starting Tuesday night on MTV, the hip-hop star will try out a new role as a sort of celebrity guardian angel who tries to scare kids straight. In the reality series "T.I.'

As was first announced five years ago, Conan O'Brien abdicated his position as the host of NBC's "Late Night" on Friday night, preparatory to taking up the scepter and mantle of "The Tonight Show." His investiture is scheduled for June 1. Such changes come rarely in network television -- O'Brien's 16-season run is not coincidentally matched by "Late Night" predecessor David Letterman's still-continuing stint on CBS' "Late Show" and by Leno's soon-to-end "Tonight Show" tenure.

Pitted against edgy procedurals, trendy reality shows or ensemble dramas, NBC's "Law & Order" for nearly 20 years has persevered as one of TV's most recognizable and durable brands. And if it lasts a few more seasons, the hybrid cop-and-lawyer series would eclipse "Gunsmoke" as television's longest-running drama.

RuPaul, the 6-foot-4 to 6-foot-7 (by his own varying accounts) African American drag queen who sashayed his way into mass consciousness in the 1990s with the club hit "Supermodel" and a VH1 talk show, is back on TV with "RuPaul's Drag Race." A reality competition show now about three-quarters through its first cycle on Logo, the LGBT-themed cable net, it aims to discover "America's next drag superstar" -- that is, the next RuPaul.