BOSTON: WHDH-TV, the NBC affiliate owned by Sunbeam Television of Miami, has declined to run Jay Leno’s new one-hour show in primetime. NBC recently announced it would move Leno to the 10 p.m. weekly time slot in an effort to hold down programming costs and make a bit more money. NBC finished the most recent prime-time broadcast season No. 4 behind CBS, Fox and ABC in total viewers. Leno’s 10 p.m. debut is set to launch in September.
The network chief flamed WHDH for dissing Leno. NBC TV network chief John Eck was reported by the Boston Globe to say that WHDH’s move was a “flagrant violation of the terms of their contract with NBC.” He said if the station persisted, NBC might strip its affiliation. “We have a number of other strong options in the Boston market, including using our existing broadcast license to launch an NBC-owned and operated station,” he told the newspaper.
WHDH decided to run news instead of Leno to compete with the success of a 10 p.m. newscast on rival station WFXT-TV, the local Fox affiliate. Station management instead wanted to run Leno at 11 p.m., but network honchos said, “no dice.”
