Like the opening of a chain restaurant at a shopping mall that has seen better days, NBC touts the debut of the five-night-a-week “The Jay Leno Show” (9 p.m., NBC).

Just as nobody goes to Olive Garden or Red Lobster to be challenged or surprised, “Leno” offers healthy portions of the nonthreatening. Watching Leno deliver a monologue transports the viewer to the comedy clubs of his youth, or the facsimile versions entombed in the amber of generic gambling casinos.

Leno’s approach is risk-averse to the point of tedium. During last year’s tumultuous election, Sen. John McCain appeared on Leno’s show and left few impressions. But few can forget how Letterman spun McCain’s nonappearance on his couch into long-running comedy gold.

The gloomiest aspect to the prime-time franchising of Leno has been the way it has been announced with an eye toward diminished expectations. NBC honcho Jeff Zucker has explained that compared to commissioning and airing dramas at 9 p.m., the Leno show will be so economic to produce that it really doesn’t have to get decent ratings to be considered a “success.”

What master salesman Zucker is really saying is that he’s offering us something so cheap he doesn’t care whether we watch it or not. What a way to build excitement.

And what a way to ruin a network. By using Leno as an all-purpose caulk at 9 p.m., NBC now amputates the hour at which it used to show some of its best and most enduring and defining series, from “ER” to “Law & Order.”

I normally think it’s unseemly for a critic to root for a show’s failure, but in this case, I will gladly make an exception. If Zucker’s cynical experiment works, stockholder pressure on the other networks will be enormous, and they will trot out stunts just as cheap and uninspired. Other writers more business-savvy than me have described Zucker’s move as a potential “game-changer” for network television. (Not that I’d ever use the term “game-changer.”)

If you want to put a stake in the heart of this kind of zombie programming, tune into tonight’s repeat of “CSI: Miami” (9 p.m., CBS). Yes, it’s a dreadful show so shiny and morbid it’s frequently laughable, and yes, David Caruso is a very unconvincing actor. But if Leno gets beaten by a “CSI: Miami” repeat on his very first night, then Zucker will receive the public repudiation he so richly deserves.

Tonight’s other highlights

• Carl Reiner guest stars on a two-hour “House” (7 p.m., Fox).

• Jennifer Hudson, Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy, Danny Glover and Beyonce Knowles stars in the 2006 musical “Dreamgirls” (7 p.m., ABC).

• Nathan’s career hangs on a thread on the season premiere of “One Tree Hill” (7 p.m., CW).

• Suspicion falls on Cassie and Charles on the fourth-season premiere of “Lincoln Heights” (7 p.m., Family).

• Eight finalists perform on “America’s Got Talent” (7 p.m., NBC).

• Rusty and Jordan mull major changes on “Greek” (8 p.m., Family).

• Blair and Chuck redefine dating on the season premiere of “Gossip Girl” (8 p.m., CW).

• Not for the first time, a celebrity shares his family life with a camera crew on the new series “Eddie Griffin: Going for Broke” (9 p.m., VH1).

Cult choice

TCM devotes the day to cheaply made and badly dubbed sword-and-sandal epics from the early 1960s, from “Hercules, Samson & Ulysses” (7:30 a.m.) through “Atlantis, the Lost Continent” (5:15 p.m.).