They're Not Gonna Take It Anymore!

Several reports say NBC is putting Jay Leno back in his late-night spot after dismal ratings for his 10pm/9 Central comedy hour. This isn't about a network canning a losing show; it's a move by suits to ward off an affiliate revolt.

Ever since NBC announced The Jay Leno Show, its affiliates were publicly supportive but privately furious. They knew it was a lame attempt to cut costs and hang on to the late-night talent roster after the net made a deal to hand The Tonight Show over to Conan O'Brien. NBC didn't want the drama that surrounded Leno's takeover of the show from Johnny Carson, which alienated David Letterman and preceded his exit to CBS. But they didn't want Leno bolting to ABC, which would have dropped or bumped Jimmy Kimmel or Nightline or both to make room. Network brass came up with a win-win situation... except that their affiliates lost.

Ed Ansin, owner of Boston's WHDH, threatened to bump Leno's new show. He backed off when he realized NBC would yank his affiliation -- even if it meant the network ended up on a weak former Telemundo station. That was months before the show debuted, and it effectively quelled any other affiliates' grumbling.

Now Leno's show is doing exactly what the station owners and managers feared: saddling them with a weak lead-in that's killing their late news ratings and taking a huge bite out of their revenues during a recession. NBC told them to eat dirt and smile. Well, not anymore.

The NBC affiliates board meets later this month, and if the network hadn't taken action on Leno's show, mutiny would have been in the works. Given NBC's attitude towards the stations that deliver its goods, I'm sure a number of GM's are wishing they could dump the network for Fox, which would be happy to move off of more UHF stations and strengthen its affiliate base. And how about having American Idol as a news lead-in? My college station -- KOMU in Columbia, MO -- ditched NBC for several years in the early 1980's when the network's programming was dismal. You can bet NBC stations would find a way to get out of their programming contracts and go with a net that treats them better.