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]