NBC Affiliates Join the Leno Blame Game
Just two weeks after NBC TV chief Jeff Gaspin attributed the Jay Leno Show's tumbling ratings to it's primetime lead-ins, local NBC affiliates are blaming their programming lead-in for the free-falling news numbers: The Jay Leno Show. Local networks depend on their news for advertising revenue, an income stream dried up by the recession, and now Leno's nose-diving viewership. The LA Times mentions that for now, the network is buying support by "[giving] each of the affiliates additional commercial time to sell." Meanwhile, NBC maintains that "there is erosion in broadcast television each year." So by transitive property, if Leno's ratings continue to drop, NBC affiliates should skip Leno and complain about his primetime lead-ins? [LAT]
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Watching NBC is like watching someone else's grandpa on life support.
What dirt must Leno have on the executives for them to agree to let him destroy prime time like this?
This was always a stupid idea, but I was willing to wait and see if maybe I was being too judgey.
Nope.
So you're telling me that because Leno's ratings are dropping isn't because it's a lousy show poorly executed, but because their other shows are even more crappier? Don't get me wrong, with shows like Trauma is not helping Leno at all, but seriously! I thought that just because it was Leno that people would be flocking to NBC at 10/9. But we all know it was really a ploy to cut cost of programing. But haven't you ever heard that it takes money to make money?
Granted, not all great shows are going to be money-makers. I can understand the need for a Deal or No Deal if it makes something like 30 Rock possible. And perhaps you can put a lesser-expensive program in that slot, but if you are, make it of good quality and even some variety.
But no, we're going to get another JJ Abrams production that will be better in concept than execution (ala Fringe) and another nostalgia remake (The Rockford Files). Seriously, The Rockford Files? Did you already have two bombs in the nostalgia category when you remade Bionic Woman and Knight Rider. What's next, Saint Elsewhere?