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NBC Considers Cutting Back Programming Hours in Prime Time

If NBC affiliates start programming news an hour earlier it would have a major impact on Fox affiliated stations already running news at that hour.

Have my doubts about moving late night programming up a hour. I suspect many stations would delay it to its traditional start time to allow for a 90 minute newscast.
 
I realize it's a different time now, but the last time NBC played around with the weeknight 10pm (9pm CT/MT) slot was back in 2009, when Jay Leno's disastrous prime-time ticket effort was around, and Conan O'Brien taking over the Tonight Show. In the article, it stated that NBC could possibly feed The Tonight Show as soon as 10pm/9pm CT/MT, but it also would appear that they would leave it to each station's discretion.

However the case, if NBC were give back the 10pm hour back to the stations, just going off of this upcoming fall schedule, the following shows would be effected:

Mondays: Quantum Leap (a reboot of the early 90s series)
Tuesdays: New Amsterdam
Wednesdays: Chicago P.D.
Thursdays: Law & Order: Organized Crime
Fridays: second half of Dateline NBC
Saturdays: Saturday Night Live Vintage

Of course, they'll be some mid-season changes on the schedule, but this is just to illustrate the point of what shows would be effected by this change. I believe the Dick Wolf shows (Chicago P.D. and L&O: OC) and New Amsterdam will live on, eventually either moving to an earlier time (if one becomes available), or go to USA Network and/or Peacock. Maybe the new Quantum Leap does as well, if it becomes a hit. Most, if not all, of the classic SNL content is also already available on Peacock anyway...hell, they even have a "SNL Vault" channel there.
 
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Mediafrog+ said:
If NBC affiliates start programming news an hour earlier it would have a major impact on Fox affiliated stations already running news at that hour.
Have my doubts about moving late night programming up a hour. I suspect many stations would delay it to its traditional start time to allow for a 90 minute newscast.
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I betcha if this comes to fruition & affiliates had the option to air late night early or at the reg. time, KPNX (12 News) in Phoenix would opt for the latter & air an extended 90-minute newcast. Notice in this market, since I moved here last month & even before looking at listings & seeing how the affiliates schedule around live events on East Coast primetime, more often than not, outside of KPHO, due in part to having sister station KTVK airing news in primetime, they air an extra/expanded newscast.
 
Mediafrog+ said:
If NBC affiliates start programming news an hour earlier it would have a major impact on Fox affiliated stations already running news at that hour.

Have my doubts about moving late night programming up a hour. I suspect many stations would delay it to its traditional start time to allow for a 90 minute newscast.
Click to expand...

Off the top of my head, two such markets that would effected be Pittsburgh (NBC affiliate WPXI produces news for Fox affiliate WPGH; the two are separately-owned), and Raleigh/Durham (WRAL [NBC] is the sister to WRAZ [Fox]).
 
Interesting idea. It obviously will affect the affiliates who depend on NBC for its programming. To me, this is part of what we've seen where TV companies are transitioning their content from free platforms, such as broadcast TV, to subscription platforms that they own. We've already seen some of this happen at Warner Media, where they are transferring budgets from TBS or other existing channels to their subscription services.

The networks have been using the 10PM hour for a lot of its news programming, such as 20/20 or Dateline.
 
Doesn't surprise me after they already canceled Days of out Lives and moving it to Peacock next month. Plus all the shows on NBC will be going to Peacock starting September 19.
 
I'm guessing it's a case where 1) They're trying to push more people to their streaming platform, 2) Somewhat related, they've found that fewer and fewer viewers are watching things in their allotted and scheduled timeslots, and instead prefer to watch things "on demand" as their own schedule and time permits. Also, with the popularity of "binge watching", rather than someone watching an episode per week and being stuck waiting a full week to find out what happens if they're left with a cliff-hanger, many now prefer to watch several episodes at a time where they get immediate gratification. 3) Ultimately, like other networks, they're finding that the juice isn't worth the squeeze when it comes to creating original shows and programming for a time slot that has what they're finding to be a shinking or limited audience. In short, why bother creating and programming when the numbers just aren't there to support it as they once were. At least one other major CATV network announced a few weeks ago that they were ceasing the creation of all original content shows, effective now, for that same reason.
 
Guess that means it (the open 10/9pm slot) would be a return of sorts for some of the NBC affiliates that were Fox affiliates before the 1995 switch, like KSHB Kansas City, WGBA Green Bay, WPMI Mobile, and KHNL Honolulu.
 
Wow. Not that surprised. They attempted this years ago with the Tonight Show 5 days a week - it was a huge flop. Right now, there's not much on at 10 p.m. L&O and last half season of New Amsterdam.

NBCU is really throwing up it’s hands not to mention of all the problems plaguing Peacock.




As for NBC affiliates expanding to a 10/9 newshour…..Who else can only handle so much news, even local?
 
Here is a weird idea that MIGHT benefit in several ways. The original prime time access rule was designed to give local stations the 7 PM to 8 PM (Eastern/Pacific) slot for either educational, public affairs or locally produced programming. When I was a kid there was Evening Magazine, some news programming, reruns and game shows. But over time, a lot of the local programs disappeared, and were replaced by the game shows, reruns and syndicated news shows and fluff. Independent stations took it a bit further and scheduled a lot of these programs against the network prime time and even in late night. I wonder if it would be more prudent for the network prime time schedule to go 7 PM to 10 PM across the board (including Sundays) since 10 PM is becoming more of a wasteland, and leave the 10 PM slot open to program news and the same kind of fare that airs at 7 now. Game shows might take a slight hit, but might not. Reruns would do well I'm sure and syndicated news shows would have a similar audience to Dateline or 20/20 and would lead in well to the 11 PM news (or stations could do news at 10 - some stations today are programming news in the 7 PM hour). With prime time starting earlier you'd have a larger audience early and the die-hard audience for the 7 shows might just stay on board even if they were at 10. Thoughts?
 
ShawnHill1 said:
Off the top of my head, two such markets that would effected be Pittsburgh (NBC affiliate WPXI produces news for Fox affiliate WPGH; the two are separately-owned), and Raleigh/Durham (WRAL [NBC] is the sister to WRAZ [Fox]).
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West Palm Beach: WPTV 5 (NBC) produces news for WFLX 29 (FOX).
 
genius said:
Wow. Not that surprised. They attempted this years ago with the Tonight Show 5 days a week - it was a huge flop.
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IMO the 5 nights of Leno in prime-time was a smart move, at least for the network. It was really the affiliates who put an end to the nightly Leno, with objections about their late local news ratings tanking and threatening to cancel Leno piecemeal.

genius said:
As for NBC affiliates expanding to a 10/9 newshour…..Who else can only handle so much news, even local?
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For the most part, news is replacing low-viewership time periods. Are you more likely to watch "FOX 28 This Morning" or Judge Jerry at 10am? For most people, the answer is no: they are busy at 10am. So you get news programming that effectively draws people in their 50s through 80s and costs the local station little extra after paying for the 5am to 9am hours.
 
JayR said:
West Palm Beach: WPTV 5 (NBC) produces news for WFLX 29 (FOX).
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Who 13 produces a 9pm Newscast for KDSM 17 that runs for an hour during the week, only half hour on the weekends. If channel 13 airs News at 9pm how would that affect the news produced by channel 13 for channel 17. Plus this last season channel 17 started airing a night time version of The National Desk from 10-11pm after channel 13 News at 9 on KDSM Fox 17.
 
powers said:
With prime time starting earlier you'd have a larger audience early and the die-hard audience for the 7 shows might just stay on board even if they were at 10. Thoughts?
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Welcome to the Mountain time zone! Of course, local news coverage starts at 10p local time, and 'late night' at 10:35p
 
JayR said:
West Palm Beach: WPTV 5 (NBC) produces news for WFLX 29 (FOX).
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San Antonio too where the NBC Affiliate WOAI-TV produces news for KABB-TV Fox 35 given that they are both Sinclair Owned stations.



Little Rock is another example where Nexstar managed NBC Affiliate KARK-TV produces news for KLRT-TV the fox Affiliate in the area.

 
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