At least for a week, NBC affiliates were happy with the recent changes to NBC's schedule from a piece in Broadcasting & Cable:
“It feels really good to be back in pattern, with Jay on after late news,” says WDIV Detroit VP/General Manager Marla Drutz, who runs one of the few stations where The Jay Leno Show found an audience in primetime. “These are the kinds of numbers we’ve been hoping for. It’s a win-win-win”—in terms of prime, late news and late night.
That was last week. This Monday, Law & Order managed a Leno-average 1.5 adults 18-49 rating at 10pm, and Parenthood fell to a 2.6 rating on Tuesday (Jay averaged a 2.0 rating at 10pm Tuesdays).
The question, of course, is how long Leno can sustain signifi cant interest in late night; his 10 p.m. show also had a robust start before ratings started their free fall. A ratings reduction is inevitable, but Fiorile thinks Tonight will stand tall for the long term—just as it did before NBC blew up its schedule. “If they maintain the guest list and the quality of the show, I’m kind of optimistic Jay will hold onto a lot of it,” he says.
Oops! Jay's 1.1 adults 18-49 rating on Tuesday's Tonight Show was at Conan's typical levels.
But putting scripted shows back on at the tail end of primetime after the Olympics wrapped appears to be helping NBC affiliates get their late-news mojo back. Several, such as WTHR Indianapolis and WPTV West Palm Beach, are reclaiming late-news eminency after surrendering the title in November sweeps.
That was for an unsustainable week of programming with doubled up Law & Order's, a Parenthood premiere, a Marriage Ref timeslot premiere and a one hour Office. And after all that NBC averaged a 2.1 adults 18-49 rating for the week. The rest of this spring looks grim.
But putting dramas back on at 10 p.m. is a reminder of the difficulty NBC has had with that task. WHO Des Moines was another anomaly where The Jay Leno Show performed well; VP/General Manager Dale Woods is simply hoping the replacements can post a comparable number. “I’m very concerned with how the regular prime programming performs,” he says. “We’re going back to the shows that didn’t work before.”
Des Moines is seriously off message here. The strong arming of NBC (likely via a perceived threat to the Comcast acquisition) to make a mid-season switch was obviously correct, how dare they question it?
Stay tuned for more whining.
via Broadcasting & Cable.
oops. i was only going to say CT 2.6; Parenthood 2.6 … put my guns in the ground, mamma.
One week is just about right.
Bill / Robert, have you been keeping the demo ratings for 11:30 Leno / Letterman this year like you have been for primetime? It will be quite interesting to see just how little the Lenocalypse will budge NBC's primetime average, Tonight Show average (both flavors), or Letterman's average.
Of course, NBC might view the above as irrelevant, if news averages improve enough to mollify the affiliates. Still, throwing a costly albatross around Comcast's neck to start with will probably bit the affiliates back in the long run…
I will do a weekly Leno/Letterman chart (like I did Conan/Letterman) once we have a few weeks behind us. Daily numbers run into a serious noise level problem.
Awesome Bill, can't wait to see it.
I don't think Leno's numbers now mean anything to the affliates. They just cared about their lead-in.
I think Sean has it right about the affiliates' primary desire for a better lead-in.
ultimately, NBC probably gets marginally better ratings @10p, but lower profitability due to the relative expense of 10pm shows.
i believe NBC went into the whole shakeup hoping to endure the creative/ratings ding @10pm, but couldn't handle the affiliates cratering @11pm along with a potential long term crippling of the tonight show brand @1135
Looking forward to seeing these numbers….I'm sure most people will be like…WHAT?? REALLY??
I miss Conan I don't know what to do at 10:30 (central time whoo!) anymore
Why couldn't NBC have just pulled a FOX and had primetime 8-10, news at 10, and late night starting at 11? They then could have had Leno at 11, Conan at 11:30, and Jimmy at 12:30
Why all of the sudden they give a fu or these dumb asses no one watch local news any more, they are also loosing to Web viewing to do those dumb asses consider that.
I said that the affiliates should be careful for what they wish for. I have a feeling that as spring progresses, the 10:00 pm slot will fall back to Jay Leno Show numbers each weeknight except for L&O: SVU, but the only thing that will change is the network will lose more money in that timeslot.
May I mambo dogface in the banana patch?
Hmph. That should have been a reply to the comment below.
Seems like no matter what the dopes at NBC do, they are destined to remain a stagnating failure. Any new show in the 10PM slot will likely fall to Leno numbers or below, unless they consider putting something on worth watching. 3-4 L&O first airs and reruns and Parenthood are not going to cut it. Yet Zucker and his ship of fools continue to sail on, secure in their ignorance.
Seems like no matter what the dopes at NBC do, they are destined to remain a stagnating failure. Any new show in the 10PM slot will likely fall to Leno numbers or below, unless they consider putting something on worth watching. 3-4 L&O first airs and reruns and Parenthood are not going to cut it. Yet Zucker and his ship of fools continue to sail on, secure in their ignorance.