NBC’s decision to give Jay Leno a 10 p.m. show, five nights a week could be a blessing for cable, making it a bigger player in the scripted-drama business, according to Madison Avenue and cable executives.

During the past few years both basic-cable and premium-cable networks have made aggressive forays into original hour-long series, with services such as TNT, USA Network, FX and AMC reaping ratings and critical success with fare such as The Closer, Saving Grace, Monk, Psych, The Shield, Damages, Nip/Tuck and Mad Men.

A number of cable’s scripted shows air at 10 p.m. And these cable series will be competing against one less broadcast rival in the drama genre—in that particular time slot—once Leno starts doing his topical show next fall on NBC in primetime.

“Certainly if you take out the ERs and the Law & Orders and these other dramas that NBC has been running, cable could stand to benefit, particularly the originals, shows like Mad Men or Saving Grace or Psych, which are 10 o’clock-type shows, ” said Brad Adgate, Horizon Media’s senior vice president and director of research. “They (cable networks) will try to look at this as an opportunity and capitalize on it.”

Last week, NPR ran a piece whose basic premise was that most gays and lesbians today have no idea who Milk was. “I don’t know very much about his life story,” said 35-year-old Patrick Wojahn, who was elected to the College Park, Md., city council last year. “It just shows that all this stuff is many, many years ago and unfortunately not as fresh in our minds as maybe it should be.”

“Unfortunate” is an understatement. Wojahn is now one of the 600 openly LGBT elected officials in the country. Milk was the first. Among those 40 and under, not only is Milk forgotten, they never knew him or were taught about his life. There’s little realization that many of the rights we have gained as a community, like the right to marry in two states and to enjoy civil unions in 12 more, flow from Milk’s 1970s crusade.