NBC vows to stand its ground, and pull network affiliation, if necessary, if a Boston station insists on running a local newscast instead of the new Jay Leno show at 10 p.m. this fall, insiders say. WHDH-TV in Boston — the seventh largest market in the country and the hometown to both Leno and Conan O’Brien – rocked the TV industry last night with word that it didn’t want to air a Monday-through-Friday program featuring the former Tonight Show host because "we don’t think the Leno show is going to be effective in prime time," station owner Ed Ansin told a Boston newspaper Thursday. "It will be detrimental to our 11 o’clock. It will be very adverse to our finances." Ansin reportedly asked NBC if he could run Leno at 11 p.m. but was denied. He also claims his contract with NBC allows him to choose to preempt Leno in the fall. (EW could not reach Ansin this morning.)
NBC reacted swiftly with a barrage of threats from both its station and legal honchos. "That is absolutely wrong [about the affiliation contract]," NBC Universal General Counsel Rick Cotton said via a statement. "It is clear that WHDH is contractually required to air NBC programming as scheduled by the network."
Another statement, from NBC TV Network president John Eck, added: "WHDH’s move is a flagrant violation of the terms of their contract. 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."
The network has already looked into turning its Boston Telemundo station, WNEU, into an NBC affiliate. But WNEU doesn’t have the same kind of reach as WHDH, which is the largest independently owned and operated NBC affiliate in the country. For now, it appears Ansin is not bowing to threats and will proceed without Leno in the fall (his plans are to run local news from 10-11:30 p.m. as a lead-in to O’Brien). The station’s ratings for its 11 p.m. newscast have dropped in recent years and "we are already suffering from weak lead-ins [from network programming]," Ansin told the Boston Globe.
Insiders at competing networks all agreed that NBC can’t give in to WHDH or it’ll risk triggering "an avalanche" with its other affiliates. "If you allow a station to air Leno out of pattern [at 11], it’ll open the floodgates," says one-high level suit at a competing Big Four network. "They have to act quickly. You have to believe that some other station will call up and say, ‘You know what? We’re doing it, too.’"
NBC does have other options, though they seem remote. The network could provide WHDH with financial incentives to keep Leno at 10, but again, that could snowball into an issue with other stations as well. It could also try to peddle the Leno show to the CBS-operated WSBK, an independent station in the market. Flipping the Telemundo station into a new NBC affiliate seems more likely — even if the network risks the ire of Hispanic viewers (in response, NBC could keep some Spanish-language programming on the station).
But transferring affiliations in Boston may not be as easy as it sounds. The CW had its work cut out for it when it merged the UPN and WB networks a few years back. "It is really hard to convert an audience to a network," says another high-ranking exec. "It takes time. Even if NBC does find another station, it may pale in comparison."
It’s unclear at this time whether Leno himself will appeal to the WHDH station owner, though he’ll certainly be in shouting distance soon to try; an NBC insider says the late-night host is expected to make an appearance in Boston Monday to help out a local comedian. In the meantime, it appears no other NBC stations are following WHDH’s lead.
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Good for Boston…seriously, does ANYONE want to watch Leno 5 nights a week at 10p.m. I barely tuned in as it is, and only if I knew there was a guest I wanted to see. Maybe if they stand there ground, NBC will see what a stupid idea this was and pull Leno off and actually start to make quality 10p.m. programming. Just my opinion
Who in their right mind does not think this Leno show will be a hit? This show will not last, and this owner is calling a spade a spade. A 5-nights-a-week 10pm variety show with someone as uncool as Leno is guaranteed to fail. NBC must really cherish being in 4th place because this is a major bomb they are backing.
sorry..stand THEIR ground…
I really don’t want to watch Leno anyway. I’d rather watch the local news, haha.
Good for them! Anything but Leno, I would watch old reruns of Circus Boy or Marcus Welby M.D. before I would watch that hack. My local affiliate can run it if it wants to, but they can’t make me watch.
Do people in Boston even have TVs?
NBC is waiving the white flag at 10 p.m. The show is merely filler. They should just go the Fox and CW route and do two hours of primetime. Leno at 10 might have worked if they did it one night a week so that people saw it as a special event, like Jonathan Ross in the U.K.
I wish I lived in Boston. They are absolutely right! I was so happy when Leno was stepping down… I’m not happy he is going to still be here. If that was the case… why make him leave the Tonight Show!!
Haha. Go Boston! Leno is about as unfunny as it gets and I hate that he’ll still be on tv.
Add my voice to the chorus that wishes Jay Leno would go away already. I have a show I love on NBC, and I’m worried about its future thanks to Jay’s decision to stay on the air. If it gets canceled because of these five hours of prime real estate Jay is hogging, I’m going to be so upset.
Oh man, as if I didn’t love living in Boston enough already.
This is quite familiar. Ansin lost NBC’s affiliation in Miami when the network bought another station. He put a lurid and tabloid style news program with the infamous Rick Sanchez on at 10 and started the “if it bleeds, it leads” trend of local news.
NBC is in a position of weakness now compared to then, so it’s payback time (in Ansin’s mind, anyway).
Who cares what some station owner in Boston has to say or if he thinks the show will fail? If he doesn’t want to air it, then fine, strip the station of its affiliation and move the hell on. Obviously this guy felt like putting his balls on the table and acting like a big shot, as if he could push around NBC. The fact that he’s probably right that the show won’t fare well is irrelevant.
Well, this program is STRIPPED (aired 5 days a week) and that hasn’t been tried on a network in primetime since the ’60s! Boston NBC can say because it’s stripped, it doesn’t qualify as PT content. On the other hand, NBC says PT is 8-11 Monday-Saturday, so it counts.
I’ll be at ned’s house watching Circus Boy instead of Leno.