US network NBC’s Jay Leno “experiment” is continuing to provide major headaches.
While network chiefs continue to insist that everything is fine, even in the wake of poor ratings and a likewise fall in figures for previously successful drama series that have been dropped from their plum 10 pm time slots to less hospitable periods, another player in the game could be about to create even bigger trouble; namely, NBC’s affiliate stations, whose local news shows have been badly hit by the low ratings “The Jay Leno Show” is giving them as a lead in.
Bill Carroll, Vice President at Katz Television Group, who advises local stations on programming, says flatly that “I don’t think anybody is going to say having Jay Leno at the 10 o’clock hour has been a positive.” Craig Allison, the Vice President and General Manager of KSHB in Kansas City, is another affiliate who has seen the ratings for the news as a result of having “The Jay Leno Show” air before it, and is even more blunt about the situation, declaring “I’m not pleased with what Leno is doing. I don’t think anybody is… I don’t think any NBC affiliate wanted to wake up in the fall with a weaker lead in to their late news.”
To be fair, NBC did predict the situation to an extent and allowed the affiliate stations additional commercial time to sell, but it may not be enough in the long term – and if it isn’t, affiliate stations may feel forced to drop Leno and put in their own programs instead to protect their news shows, which generate a third of their overall revenue – a move that would create absolute chaos for NBC and the local stations.
