I never watch the NBC station news in my area (ABC local is way, way better).

I love the move as I will watch Leno, local news, then go to bed. If anything I think it hurts Conan's Tonight Show, not the local news.

So I take it that WHDH is airing the normal 10PM NBC programs right now, and they plan on creating a 10pm news program just to snub Leno. At least that's how I am reading between the lines here.

I say strip them of their affiliation if that's what they want. They'd be better off being CW or Fox if that's what they want.

In Kansas City, the major network affiliates also own smaller stations, so they air the regular network programming and then the 9pm (central time) news is aired on another channel. KCTV 5 does this...they air their 9pm news broadcast on another channel they own, and that other channel airs My Tv or whatever the hell that other channel is...I never watch it.

I take it Boston's network affiliates don't have this opportunity? Sucks for them.

My NBC affiliate is becoming a bit of a joke. In a cost-saving measure several months ago, they started broadcasting Milwaukee's morning news program for 2 hours before Today. Either through complaints or maybe that cost was even too much, now they broadcast 2 hours of weather instead.

Essentially, I would highly doubt they would ever do something like this.

My local CBS station airs primetime shows a hour earlier, since they have 10 PM news. I recommend this local Boston station do the same.

From my reading it sounds like they are not only going to do a 10PM 1 hour news show and then follow that up with their regular 11PM half hour newscast. Sort of like what a couple of my local stations do for the 5-6:30PM block right now. I don't see 90 minutes of local news doing better, overall, than just running Leno normally. I could see maybe moving the news up to 10 and then running Leno from 10:30 to Conan at 11:30.

But this does raise another question for me. Are local stations seeing any kind of cost reduction for the Leno show? I ask because NBC has been very clear that they expect Leno's numbers to be lower than a traditional primetime show, but to make up the lost ad revenue with reduced costs. If the affiliates pay the same for Leno as they would for ER or whatever, then it seems they are getting screwed.

Do Eastern and Pacific time zone stations even have that option?

I'm in the pacific time zone, so apparently it is. I still remember missing the Survivor season premiere in 2002 (when I moved to the area) and was very confused.

I don't like crap like that either. I am of the opinion if you are a network affiliate, you should show the programs the network shows at the scheduled time everybody else is showing it. We have affiliates in Kansas City that screw around with late night programming...The CBS and ABC affiliate here show other things (repeats of sitcoms/tabloid "news" programs/entertainment news programs) starting after the local evening news, thus causing them to show Craig Ferguson and Nightline/Kimmel at much later hours than what the majority of ABC affiliates air them.

Just like when they arbitrarily decide to show a Billy Graham special or some other stupid piece of crap programming they came up with in prime time and bump a network show (even if it's first run) and they won't air the bumped show at all. It's irritating.

I guess the major networks allow for it, that's how they get away with it, but it's still damned annoying and there apparently must be limits to how badly they can screw around with things, or NBC wouldn't be going after the Boston channel like this. And if this station in Boston gets away with their crap, how many local affiliates across the nation will be watching to see what happens? If they do pull in more ratings locally for the news, what's to stop other network affiliates from deciding to not air certain shows in lieu of their own programming?

They just need to put an end to all this crap now.

After a week of discussions between the station and the network, WHDH-TV Channel 7 officials said today that Jay Leno’s new talk show is a go this fall on Boston's NBC affiliate.

“Upon further consideration, we have decided to telecast Jay Leno at 10:00 p.m. starting in September,’’ said Ed Ansin, owner of WHDH and WLVI-TV Channel 56, in a statement. “Jay is from Andover, where I went to school. I enjoy his humor. We hope the new show is a big success.”

http://www.boston.com/business/ticke...el_7_well.html


Sounds like their lawyers were wrong.

In St. Louis, they used to delay Conan for an hour so they could air Jerry Springer after the Tonight Show.

That's the stuff I am talking about. It's just irritating.

In my experience (what I have of it!) it seems that the small town affiliates don't pull crap like that. It's usually affiliates in major cities/metro areas that pull crap like that.

Clearly the networks are more concerned about the affiliates fooling around with the prime time schedule, however.

it was like that here in Phoenix for ever. Leno ended at 11:30 and Conan didn't start until 12:30.

They did the same thing in Houston. Actually, they delayed it until 2:30 AM. Conan did a bit about it on his show.
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I forgot about that - it was the worst!

The last thing we need is Leno on primetime 5 nights a week. For one thing, it makes Conan's move to the Tonight Show a less event. Screwing Conan over like this pisses me off.

And NBC tried and failed having DateLine on 5 nights, if they can't do News, then they can't do "comedy".

I think it's pretty widely understood that NBC's having a hard time doing anything at this point, hence the desperate move with Leno.

Jay Leno: "See Conan, as long as I'm around, you'll always be second best"

I think I'd like to live in a world where this could work...I like the idea itself. I am not confident in execution that it will work as successfully as any of the late night talk shows but part of me wants it to work because it would be an interesting shift in TV programming as a whole. CBS and ABC would certainly have to step up if they wanted to compete if this did turn out to be successful.

And if it's not successful, you can bet ABC will be waiting in the wings to sign Leno to their network and swing the ax on Nightline.

Why does it have to be only about Conan? Who gives a rat's ass? I mean, Conan is fine and all, but late night TV isn't suddenly going to revolve around him.

http://www.thrfeed.com/2009/08/jay-leno-tca-panel.html

"Whoopi, Whoopi plus one..."

So....it's the Tonight Show, just 90 minutes earlier.

...again I am so glad NBC has Jay Leno on at 10pm now!!!!!!!

I NO LONGER HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT 10PM CONFLICTS ON MY DVR WITH NBC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and backwards!

Was anyone expecting anything different?