The Remote Island

NBC's Boston Affiliate Dumps Jay Leno

Posted by Olivia Purnell

 

Leno lovers in Boston, get ready. It looks like you will not be getting your 10pm Leno-fix this fall.

WHDH Channel 7, NBC's Boston affiliate will be airing an hourlong 10pm newscast instead of Leno's 10pm talk show.  Why?  Well, station owner Ed Ansin says "we don't think the Leno show is going to be effective in primetime."

Ooooh snap. That's a pretty serious statement, and NBC's not taking it lying down.

After Ansin's assertion that the Jay Leno Show will be ineffectual and "detrimental" to the 11o'clock news (that just seems mean, doesn't it?), NBC TV Network president, John Eck, decided it was time to knuckle up and throwdown (as much as one can throwdown through a press release).  He says: 

"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."

This isn't an idle threat. NBC can do that kind of shit. It hapened back in 2000, with an NBC San Francisco affiliate called KRON. NBC is not above a hostile takeover.

We can't help but wonder, though, what would happen if NBC just let this one slide. Maybe they should let affiliates decide if they're into this whole early evening Leno thing. Would Leno survive? Or would he be replaced by hour-and-a-half long local news programming? (What in the sam hell do we need to hear about for an hour and a half?) Would affiliates start airing blocks of Snuggie infomercials, and Friends re-runs? We hear those infomercials rake in the dough. Maybe in addition to providing hours and hours of Pro-Activ programming and News, WHDH could take over Conan's slot and begin a local version of QVC, a Boston-based shopping show. Yes! WHDH, you can thank us later for that little stroke of genius.

 

(yahoo.com)

Previously:

Seth Rogan Shows Jay Leno His Skinny Butt Crack

When Leno Goes Primetime, Talk Shows Will Outnumber Other NBC Programming By Half-An-Hour

TV Networks Vs. Barack Obama


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Posted Apr 03 2009, 12:30 PM
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