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It’s another Boston Tea Party (of the TV kind)… NBC Boston affiliate WHDH announced tonight that, come September, it will air a full hour of local news at 10 PM. That means it won’t air Jay Leno’s new 10 PM show. Not only is this a huge slap in the face to Jay by his hometown station, but also to NBC. And the network is fighting back and even threatening reprisals. Tonight, I received several strongly worded statements from NBC execs declaring war on the affiliate, including this one from John Eck, President of the NBC TV Network: “WHDH’s move is a flagrant violation of the terms of their contract with NBC. If they persist, we will strip WHDH of its NBC Affiliation. We have a number of other strong options in the Boston market, including using our existing broadcast license to launch an NBC owned and operated station.” Also playing hardball is Rick Cotton, General Counsel: “It is clear that WHDH is contractually required to air NBC programming as scheduled by the network.”
That’s not what WHDH owner, Sunbeam chief Ed Ansin, claims. He told the Boston Globe that WHDH could contractually replace Leno at 10 PM with news because, “We don’t think the Leno show is going to be effective in primetime. It will be detrimental to our 11 o’clock (newscast). It will be very adverse to our finances.” Now the question remains: will others among NBC’s long suffering affiliates think the same way and also revolt?
I’m told that, as of now, no other affiliates are threatening to dump Leno. The last time an affiliate challenged NBC, it was KRON in San Francisco — and the station is stuck now as a MyNetworkTV affiliate. NBC is even threatening to pit a strong competitor against WHDH in the Boston market if the station doesn’t start toeing the line. “I don’t think WHDH realizes that we have an O&O in Boston, [WNEU, Channel 60], the Telemundo station there. We could easily shift programming to that station. Or talk with the other independents,” an NBC Universal exec told me tonight.
Just one problem: WNEU only reaches a portion of the Boston market.
Tonight, NBC also trotted out Michael Fiorile, the NBC Affiliate Board Chairman (and Vice Chairman of the Dispatch Group) to give Jay a vote of confidence: “The NBC affiliates are very excited about the new Leno show weeknights at 10 p.m. Jay is a true star with enormous appeal. We’ve been engaged in an open dialogue with NBC about the format of the show, and we’re looking forward to working with Jay and the entire team to make it a huge success.”
But the sad truth is that the same Michael Fiorile was telling media outlets at the end of 2008 that NBC’s beleaguered affiliates had asked the network last summer to give back time, and maybe even days, to them. And to give local content a shot. Because few of theNBC affiliates get a substantial boost from NBC’s primetime offerings because of the low ratings. Even NBC Universal boss Jeff Zucker has admitted that the network-affiliate relationship is overdue for an overhaul. But don’t for a minute think the affiliates’ first-choice scenario isn’t for the network to finally deliver some primetime hits. Instead, NBC is giving up on even trying to program for high ratings.
The result is that when the new 2009-2010 schedule debuts in September, Leno’s show from Day One will be rated lower than anything on NBC’s primetime even now. But that doesn’t matter according to NBC Universal’s controversial philosophy of “managing for margins, not ratings”. Estimates are that Leno 2.0 may only cost $2M a week and result in 46 weeks of original shows, compared to the average $3 million per episode pricetag of scripted primetime dramas that air on average 22 original weekly episodes. But the 58-year-old attracts only 4.8 million viewers now on The Tonight Show – measly by primetime standards, especially in the advertiser-coveted 18-to-49 demographic. The affiliates know that expanded local news or local ballgames might hit a higher number than Leno or NBC’s weaker nights — which is no doubt why WHDH made the decision it did.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Putting Leno at 10 because you put Conan at 11:30 and then Jimmy Fallon at 12:30 and then there’s that Carson Daly at the end wasn’t a great idea. Maybe they thought Jay was getting stale, it was about the same for better or worse for over ten years I don’t see what the deal was. But NBC only put Dateline on about 3 times a week because they didn’t have anything else. They must really not have anything now.
Jay will only call his socialist Chicago gangster buddy Obama and the government will take over WHDH and fire it’s management and then fund it with the pork in the stimulus package.
I think the real issue here is that NBC is trying to drop Leno into the 10 o’clock news time slot forcing it to be an hour later where less people will get that tiny bit of information they get daily. They want to force more ignorance of current affairs in the general public. This should be a crime.
All of these late night shows are duds; Leno, Letterman, Ferguson, O’Brien and that new guy. They are old and tired and that new guy is really, really bad. They only get viewers because there’s nothing else on late at night. If a network made an effort to put on decent second-run movies every weeknight at 1130, they could clean up.
According to KRON’s Wikipedia entry (yeah, I know, but it looks well researched), NBC lost a bid for their San Francisco affiliate, then got petulant, and demanded that the station operate as if NBC had owned them.
The owners of the station said ‘no’, so NBC pulled their affiliation.
Leno is so old school. Look at the dumb looking pix at the top of the page. What is that about? Same thing every night over and over. Oh well.
WHDH has a locked in audience for this time slot. You know, some people have Kids and have to get to work early in the morning so this is their Late Local News.
For these idiots at NBC to wage war against their own Station Affiliate because their ego tells them they are right (about scheduling a late night talk show that won’t work in this timeslot) is ludicrous.
This whole Leno 10pm thing was imposed on them. WHDH should be given the opportunity to schedule Leno the way they see fit. They know their audience a hell of a lot better than they Failed Leadership of NBC Execs.
ZUCKER PUT LENO AT TEN.
A COST-CUTTING HACK ONCE AGAIN.
THEN A BRAVE BEAN TOWN STRINGER,
GAVE THIS MOVE THE FINGER,
THE AFFILIATE REVOLUTION BEGINS!
Man, Jay should have walked. The urban legend that NBC is doing all this to destroy Jay Leno’s career so he can never threaten Conan (who could be viable for another 15-20 years) is sounding more and more like reality.
ABC would be bending over backwards to launch Jay right now at 11:35, but THIS is the first substantial story out about his new NBC show? Ouch.
One weird thing I always wonder (longtime Dave Letterman fan) – why does Jay NEVER seem to get sidelined with weird health or personal issues? Dave had shingles, a late-in-life baby, major bypass surgery and a stalker that dragged him into court cases over the course of a decade, but Jay hasn’t so much as fallen off his motorcycle. The guy is like a Cylon or something.
1. NBC has to go to war to keep ONE affiliate?
2. WHDH knows Leno’s show is the white flag of programming for the network.There won’t be any more ER’s in that timeslot.
3. The affiliate must want out pretty bad to do this.
4. Infomercials get bigger ratings than NBC shows.
Bone-headed move by those at the Boston affiliate. Jay is going to do well at 10 PM. His audience is only getting older (for example, my mother) and don’t like staying up until 11:35 as it is.
What news station wouldn’t want a consistent, solid lead-in like Jay? Nonsense.
Why go to war? They could easily give the affiliates the option of switching news to 10PM and putting Jay after, at 10:30. News wins with better lead in. Jay wins with earlier time slot. Conan follows Jay like he always has.
Of course, I’m probably the only one here who likes some of NBC’s programming — Chuck and 30 Rock are two of my favorite shows.
I admire the stand that WHDH is taking. NBC has an incredibly weak lineup and moving Leno to 10 is more of a cost-cutting measure than anything. I don’t think David will ultimately beat Goliath in this case, but good for them for sticking to their guns.
A larger problem for the affiliate is that their local news & anchor team isn’t spectacular. FOX25′s 10 p.m. broadcast has engaging personalities, a well-designed set and good content. Over the years, I feel that HDH has cycled through so many different anchors that they’ve lost much of their following.
I just tried hitting their site, however, and couldn’t get in. Maybe this news story will be an effective publicity stunt aimed at attracting more viewers. If that was the intent all along, then the HDH GM should be running NBC.
Stand up and fight the networks. Local folks know what is best for them. Networks only care about their bottom-line and could care less about the awesome responsibility granted to them in the First Amendment. They exist to soley to make money. Why do they even have a license to broadcast in the first place, what corruption makes this possible?
If I had a local station I would start by looking at the government-media-complex and the inter-locking corporate directorships. The relationship between General Electric who owns NBC and the tax breaks it receives or the tax burdens inflicted on its competitors by the government.
Today I listened to some remarks made by the “president” and others at G20 and it seemed to me that they think they work for the “global” community first and the citizens of the United States last, if at all! I wondered if the federal government even understands why its exists, who they work for, what is expected of it and its boundaries.
If I had a station this is a story that I would cover, in fact I would make it the organization primary purpose in life, everyday because we understand it is our responsibility to uphold the Constitution of the United States and we know that big government and big media networks will never do it, and so it comes down to us, the local folks.
Will this local station in Boston step up to the plate and do the right thing? Or is this simply a publicity stunt for the sake of money?
One thing is certain, if political bias, PC thought control & the corruption continue, our freedom and our liberty will further erode to a point where you will not recognize the country you are living in. In fact it will not be a country, it will cease and morph into a north American trade zone dictated to by nameless, faceless global socialists and capitalists who were never elected and know beter than you little local people, aka SHEEPLE!
Let’s hope all NBC affiliates follow suit. NBC needs to go way of the dinosaur. DIE, NBC, DIE!
The only show left on NBC that I watch is “Life”. When they cancel that (and I’m sure they will) I’m through with them. I can’t risk investing my time in a new program that they’ll cancel after 3 episodes.
You’d think if ANYONE was watching their programming, they’d leave it alone. Everybody wants a thoroughbred, nobody wants a workhorse. It’s not like M*A*S*H came out at number one and stayed there.
I don’t know why the networks think I have to invest my time in their crap when they aren’t willing to invest their own.
When Leno becomes funny maybe they will carry him.
I live in Boston, and think it doesn’t make sense to simucast the local news on channnel 7 and 56 every night. Fox25 local news blows them away every night.
People watch Leno for the monologue then switch to another channel
This is a job for Superbama. Clearly the Big O needs to step in, take over NBC, fire the CEO, and show Big Media how to run a network. The only question is while he get rid of Matt Wowwer while he’s at it.
The risk for NBC is that if the Boston affiliate dumps/moves Leno and is successful in the ratings, then a dozen or more affiliates will do the same thing. By January the Leno show will be toast and NBC will have lost all control of the 10pm slot.
I would rather watch old Johnny Carson/Ed McMahon shows than the current dinosaur on tv.
If Jay does well at 10 it will be primarily, if not only, for the same reason he did well at 11:35: There really is nothing else worth watching. Additionally, a (previous) post by “Alex” mentioned Dateline and airing it 3 times a week (didn’t they get up to 4/wk at one point?). Dateline, slanted as it is, was a pretty good “news magazine” many years ago, following the 60 Minutes format of three stories per hour. Dateline then dropped it to one story, and then sometimes extended the program to 2 hours! Still only covering one story. All the while, it never gave us more than 10 minutes of information. What a waste of viewers’ time, and what a bore. And with the dramatic vocal delivery of two of their male reporters I have avoided Dateline for sometime.
Would the Boston affiliate be in that much trouble if NBC pulled all their programming. They could probably make just as much money and be viewed by just as many people if scheduled nothing by syndicated programming.
As for Jay doing OK at 10PM, especially among older viewers, who cares? Older viewers aren’t what advertisers are looking for. Jay will need something to pull in the younger crowd and it’ll take more than his lame jokes and comedy 20 years out of date.
The Boston affiliate must be brain dead. Leno is an irreplaceable entertainer and they will be the losers if they cancel his show. His political jokes and commentary strikes me as always funny and sometimes strikes a nerve.
All of these armchair critics of Leno at 10:00 p.m. (9:00 Central) fail to realize something important. The “Tonight Show” format has often generated as much as 25% of NBC’s total network operations profits. Thus, trying Leno in prime-time is a reasonable gamble.
It’s a better gamble, in fact, than five unproven “high concept” scripted shows (which would undoubtedly be narrowly targeted to the “coveted” urban/coastal 18-49 demographic) or more endless variations of Dick Wolf’s “Law and Order” franchise.
Certainly narrow-casting, channel proliferation, internet/video game/home video competition, and the current decline in the advertising market makes things tough on network programmers. However, networks still deliver large pluralities of viewers. Moving a franchise player like Leno to prime-time may deliver a steady, quality audience affiliates.
WHDH, if they don’t at least give Leno a shot, ought to be renamed “WDUH.”