Southland Canceled as Blog Fingers Point to Jay Leno

The show’s brief first season never had an especially large audience, but NBC stood by the series (which received mostly strong reviews) and opted to give it a longer chance to build an audience.  Of course, former network head Ben Silverman has left NBC since that decision, and THR claims that the new NBC higher-ups made the decision after they screened new episodes and decided they were too intense for network TV, especially at the 9 p.m. hour. That last bit has inflamed industry bloggers, who were quick to nameJay Leno’s daily 10 p.m. show as the culprit for Southland’s demise and raised alarm at the prospects for other adult dramas on the network.&nbsp;Southland producer&nbsp;John Wells, meanwhile, has vowed to try to find the series a new home on basic cable.  In a statement, he wrote in part, “I’m disappointed that NBC no longer has the time periods available to support the kind of critically acclaimed series that was for so many years a hallmark of their success. "Related links: