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It's Officially Open Season on "The Jay Leno Show"

By Catharine Taylor

Updated on: October 26, 2009 / 10:41 AM EDT / MoneyWatch

Let's get it over with and declare it open season on "The Jay Leno Show", NBC's bold experiment in rewriting the rules of primetime TV. As such, an affiliate revolt seems all but inevitable.

Of course, that perhaps it wasn't such a great idea to intentionally put a cheaper-to-produce, lower rated show in the 10 p.m. slot has been hinted at for awhile, but this morning, I woke up to two more stories declaring the show a failure, in so many words. Just take a glance at these headlines:

Advertising Age offers the "Top 10 Lessons to Learn From NBC's Failing Leno Strategy: How a Network Shot Itself in the Foot by Cynically Cost-Cutting -- and Betraying Its Viewers and Affiliates."
The New York Post describes "A Leno letdown: Poor newscast ratings stir unease at NBC stations."

We've seen this before -- once a ball like this gets rolling its path is almost always downhill. Right now, we're in what might be called the defensive phase; NBC is still proclaiming that it is solidly behind Leno, telling the Post, "We believe in the combination of a bankable star like Jay Leno hosting an exciting, topical show five nights a week and are committed to continuing to engage with our affiliates in ways to make that relationship work." But some affiliates, noting ratings for the 11 p.m. news that are down by as much as 37 percent (Philadelphia), are beginning to cry, "Uncle." An unnamed station manager tells the Post that he thinks Leno has until February. During an earnings call last week, Gannett CEO Craig Dubow said that its dozen NBC affiliates would have done better had there been scripted programming on NBC at 10 p.m. Though Dubow also said he saw "opportunity" for the show down the road, it's easy to see how the experience of his affiliates might become a catalyst for change going forward.

[UPDATE: On Tuesday morning, the "Leno Letdown" story was the most read story at nypost.com, which, I guess, is what you'd expect from a bunch of elitist New Yorkers.]

Previous coverage of "The Jay Leno Show" at BNET Media: