Viacom/CBS chief predicts Leno failure

LOS ANGELES, April 30 (UPI) -- Sumner Redstone, the executive chairman of Viacom and CBS, said he thinks Jay Leno's upcoming NBC prime time chat show will fail.

NBC gave Leno its 10 p.m. weekday time slot when it signed Conan O'Brien to replace Leno as host of "The Tonight Show."

But Redstone, talking to CNN's Larry King Wednesday, said he didn't think that moving Leno to prime time was such a good idea.

"'CSI' will beat the hell out of him," The Hollywood Reporter quoted Redstone as saying about CBS's popular three-show forensics drama franchise.

Redstone also told King that Rupert Murdoch, News Corp. chairman and chief executive officer, paid too much when he forked over $5 billion for Dow Jones, the parent company of The Wall Street Journal.

"I'm not sure there will be newspapers in 10 years," Redstone said.