I recall a scene from the movie To Be Or Not To Be, in which Mel Brooks tells the Nazis they aren't backing down from continuing an anti-Nazi sketch. He quite adamantly trumpets "We are not backing down!". The Nazis then in retaliation threaten to close his theater, to which he responds "We're backing down." The same thing just happened in Boston to that NBC affiliate that wanted to replace the 10 PM Leno slot with a local news broadcast.WHDH has relented to the network after being threatened with the loss of their NBC affiliation. Obviously, this is a sign of concern at the local level that a 10 PM Leno show would lose advertising dollars. Or perhaps the owner just doesn't find Leno to be that funny.
I can see this as an HBO movie in the future. It would be called something like "Lenogate" and have the subtitle: "Thou shalt honor thy parent company." If this does end up on HBO, be sure to give me proper credit.
The TV Squad Podcast: Vik Sahay of Chuck, Oprah talk, brutal timeslots, and more!
TV Squad Ten: Top Ten ESPN shows from worst to first
Andy Richter: The TV Squad Interview
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-14-2009 @ 10:28AM
JPN said...
WHDH is one of the few stations in the country that has some different type of relationship with its parent company. I heard a news story on this and I can't remember why. The guy who runs it did the same thing with a station in Florida back in the 80s or 90s. He feels like local news at 10 would be able to pull in more profit than Leno at 10. He's probably right.
Reply