Well, here's a plot twist I didn't see coming.
WHDH, the NBC affiliate in Boston (I'm watching it right now) says that they're not going to show Leno's new 10PM show. Starting in September, the station is going to show local news at 10PM instead!
NBC is fuming (I'm sure Leno isn't happy either - he's from Boston). The network is threatening to strip WHDH of its NBC affiliation. WHDH says that they have a certain deal that allows them to not show an NBC program if they don't want to. Apparently they asked NBC if they could show Leno's show at 11PM instead but NBC said no. I would have said no too. I mean, The Tonight Show starts at 11:35, so how could they show Leno's hour-long show without it eating into that? I don't think pushing Tonight back to midnight would have been an option.
Who knows if this will stick? Maybe WHDH will back down, but local stations, at least in my area, are so freakin' news happy nowadays, especially WHDH. Not only do they have a couple of hours of news in the morning (5 to 7AM), they have an hour-long newscast at noon, then three hours of news starting at 4PM (two and half hours of local news then Brian Williams). Plus, WHDH already airs a newscast at 10PM, on their sister CW station (WLVI) in the city. Not sure if that newscast is going away or if they'll air the newscast on both channels. I'm betting the latter. This is on top of the hour and a half of local news they're now going to have at 11PM this fall.
I'm not a big Leno fan, but I think this is a bad decision. Hey WHDH? I don't want to be this informed.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-03-2009 @ 2:44PM
Racedriven said...
I completely agree, I live just south of Worcester Massachusetts and WHDH is one of two NBC stations on tv for me.
He's not kidding about the news, enough with the news, so let me get this straight, the theme here is news, news, news, no, no, no, Put Leno's new show on a 10pm, followed by 35 mins. of news and then the tonight show, enough already, WHDH, just do it, you have enough news, where covered period.
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4-03-2009 @ 2:59PM
Lisa said...
Also from Boston, this is kind of nuts. I was kind of looking forward to getting one of the late night talk shows early for a change.
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4-03-2009 @ 2:59PM
Scott said...
As much as I can't stand local TV news and don't think anyone needs more of it, I congratulate the station for realizing that NBC is essentially giving up the hour and just programming another talk show instead of filling it with prime-time network entertainment (although one can also argue that "The Apprentice", or most of the rest of the NBC lineup, is equally bad).
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4-03-2009 @ 4:17PM
Frank said...
"Giving up the hour"?
Really?
To be blunt, you have no idea what Leno will pull for the 10PM hour. If older folks, who tend to like Leno, but may not have wanted to stay up until 11:30 to watch, latch on to this thing, it could definitely be a hit.
I'm not saying that it's going to be revolutionary television (or that this experiment will succeed), but NBC is certainly not "giving up the hour"...
4-04-2009 @ 3:10AM
hessian said...
Actually the suits at NBC are on record as having considered "giving up the hour" (crediting the lack of a 3rd hour as part of FOX's success) OR giving up an entire night (the CW doesn't program 7 nights, why do we?)
Zucker IS giving up. And he should be replaced ASAP, lest NBC fade away.
Fire Zucker, save the network.
4-03-2009 @ 3:18PM
mdisloki said...
Also a Mass-hole, I watch maybe 10 mins of news a day. I just can't take the awful stories they try to stuff down our throats. The anchors and reporters are just as bad as the crap they're spouting (except for Maria Stephanos). I don't really think I'd be watching a lot of Leno, but I'd leave him on longer than more of the same old crappy news. I'd actually rather see them put on a classic syndicated show if they don't think they can come up with a creative new show. I nominate Lost. They already have it on Sci-Fi.
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4-03-2009 @ 3:27PM
CRVBOY said...
WHDH ain't news. it's like FOX - it's Faux news. It's all sensationalism and fluff. They should just stop programming news. NBC should strip them of their affiliation just for spite.
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4-03-2009 @ 3:38PM
David said...
I'm not in Boston, so I have no chicken in this fight, but in my opinion, WHDH's goal is to make money for its owners. If they can make more money by programming news at 10 than Leno, then they should go for it. Where they're in danger is if their analysis is wrong or short-sighted.
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4-03-2009 @ 4:11PM
Judy said...
I hate the whole idea of replacing prime time programming with a talk show. I'll be at CBS, ABC, HBO, TNT, Lifetime or any of a hundred others at 10 p.m. on any given night.
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4-03-2009 @ 4:29PM
Tracey said...
I'm not a huge fan of talk shows in general, but give me a break, WHDH airs enough news, another hour isn't necessary!
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4-03-2009 @ 4:44PM
Galley said...
Remember that show "Townies" with Molly Ringwald? It never showed on the Asheville, NC ABC affiliate. They chose to show reruns of "Murphy Brown instead. WTF?
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4-03-2009 @ 6:51PM
Paul said...
Perhaps NBC is mad because this has a much larger reach than just Boston. For instance, Bell ExpressVu (the #1 satellite company in Canada) uses WHDH as their Eastern time zone NBC affiliate for both SD and HD. That means, for instance, anyone in Quebec or Ontario (Canada's 2 most populated provinces) wanting to check out Leno's new show will either have to wait 3 hours (if they have time-shifting) or not catch it at all.
There are 2.5 million households in Massachusetts. Bell is in nearly 2 million households, probably 2/3 of that (or more) using WHDH as either their main or only source of NBC. So this decision is pretty significant for Leno's international reach, especially if no Canadian network picks up the show (and I doubt any network will want to hand over the 10pm hour every weeknight to an American talk show).
Personally, I don't care. I'll only watch Leno's new show if there's a guest on who I particularly like (just like the current Tonight Show). But I can understand why NBC would be pissed.
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4-03-2009 @ 8:23PM
JennieO said...
Good for WHDH! As a Bostonian, born and raised, I don't think their news programs are emmy-worthy. I just think they're not happy with the All Leno! All The Time! crap NBC is trying to push down their throughts. More power to them for replacing the corporate twaddle with their own local twaddle. We'll see who wins.
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4-03-2009 @ 9:43PM
Justin said...
Leno may attract ratings for NBC but they are giving up on original programming. If I'm on the GE board, I wouldn't allow my network execs to give up on an hour/night and would give up on them considering how quickly they've pulled the plug on scripted shows in favor of reality programming that bombs immediately.
You want to know why the economy is in the crapper? Because CEOs don't know how to do their job--especially at GE/NBC.
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4-04-2009 @ 12:06PM
ch said...
WHDH has always been about the money. Thats why Randy Price left that worthless station. Their news is just puff.
We already have so much local news we don't need any more of it. Leave Leno on or show something else.
Anything, I have had enough of Francis Rivera and other idiots talking about britney.
Seriously people.
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4-04-2009 @ 6:50PM
pbs fan said...
The only real news is on PBS. WHDH is the crash and burn station and has been for years. Sensationalism is their thing. Let Leno on at 10.00 P.M. On occasion he can give you a laugh which is what we need now and then.
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4-04-2009 @ 11:06PM
Robobagins said...
I'm out west, and I must say my NBC station (KING) is filled with local news as well. It seems if they aren't showing news on KING, they're showing it on their sister station KONG. And the worst part of it is, is that most of it is reruns from earlier broadcasts. I won't even get started on NWCN.
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4-05-2009 @ 7:19PM
Richard Schwartz said...
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned this already: the WHDH news team already broadcasts at 10 pm, on ch. 38, so the argument that the Boston market wants more news programming at 10 pm is bogus. This is really about WHDH wanting a bigger slice of the Leno show ad revenues.
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4-15-2009 @ 6:52PM
Richard Schwartz said...
Ooops. I meant Ch 56, not 38.
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