Is your network affiliated outlet's 11/10PM newscast ready to expand to a hour?

[only1moore]

Well, if KOVR/Sacramento can successfully do it, how about KITV/Honolulu...

http://www.kitv.com/station/21629752/detail.html

This could be the future of your late night newscast coming from your ABC and CBS stations (and NBC affils if they go that route), so move over FOX, CW, and Indies, you just got company.

 

[w9wi]

Well, if KOVR/Sacramento can successfully do it, how about KITV/Honolulu...

http://www.kitv.com/station/21629752/detail.html

This could be the future of your late night newscast coming from your ABC and CBS stations (and NBC affils if they go that route), so move over FOX, CW, and Indies, you just got company.

With the Leno numbers, I think it's only a matter of time (and probably not much time) before a NBC affiliate somewhere jumps ship & runs 90 minutes of local news 9-10:30CT. (10-11:30ET/PT)

 

[radiodog2]

Back in September, our local ABC affiliate added an additional half hour newscast right after their 10pm newscast.

 

[BRNout]

Well, if KOVR/Sacramento can successfully do it, how about KITV/Honolulu...

http://www.kitv.com/station/21629752/detail.html

This could be the future of your late night newscast coming from your ABC and CBS stations (and NBC affils if they go that route), so move over FOX, CW, and Indies, you just got company.

With the Leno numbers, I think it's only a matter of time (and probably not much time) before a NBC affiliate somewhere jumps ship & runs 90 minutes of local news 9-10:30CT. (10-11:30ET/PT)

That's exactly what Ed Ansin, owner of the NBC affiliate in Boston (WHDH) threatened to do several months before Leno started. At the time, he was painted as a troublemaker and none of the other affiliates followed suit. NOW, he's looking more and more like a visionary. If the bleeding continues through the first major round of reruns next month, either NBC will have to do something about Leno or affiliates may well start jumping ship on his show.

 

[wprt949]

once comcast takes over NBC leno is done

 

[DToTheJ]

So no Leno "On Demand"? 8)

 

[dave73]

I don't see the CBS, ABC, & NBC stations in Chicago going to an hour. Fox in Chicago added a 10pm newscast on top of the 9pm newscast, but ratings for the 10pm news were low, that they cancelled it. They went back to what was then reruns of the Simpsons. Now, The Simpsons are on at 10:30pm, with The Office preceding The Simpsons. I don't see WGN-TV expanding their news to the 10pm slot anytime soon. Prior to 1987, they were the only station with news at 9pm. WGN does well with reruns of Family Guy & Two & A Half Men in the 10 & 10:30 timeslots.

 

[FreddyE1977]

Reminds me of a college class I had many years ago. The News Director of the local ABC affiliate came to speak
to us. At the end of his lecture he turned around and asked a few questions, conducting sort of an impromptu
audience survey. He asked us which of the three local 6PM newscasts we watched and why.

When he called on me I named the local NBC affiliate. When he asked me why, I told him it was because they ran a 30 minute newscast, while his station and the CBS affiliate were both an hour. I told him that in my opinion not enough news happened in this town every day to warrant filling a full hour, and on most nights they were really scrambling to cover this time with filler material. If I wanted to watch the local news I'd just as soon get through it in half an hour and then get on with my evening.

After hearing my response he looked absolutely crushed, crestfallen. As if I had told him that his mom was ugly.
In the many years since I have often felt bad about being the college sophomore who almost made the ABC
news director cry.

 

[LKellerIII]

Why would they want to do this? The affiliates run an hour of news earlier in the day. The whole point of an 11:00/10:00 late newscast is to give viewers a shorter news wrap-up before bed. I doubt most viewers want an hour of news at that hour. And I doubt the networks on the eastern and pacific time zones would want their late programming (particularly Conan and Letterman) shifted to midnight.

KOVR Sacramento is a special case. Even though they're on Pacific time, CBS has allowed them to run prime time programming from 7:00 to 10:00 to counter-program the competing NBC and ABC stations. This allows KOVR to run a full hour of news at 10:00, then start Letterman at 11:00 when the other 2 affiliates are running local news.

As far as I know, KOVR is the only station in the nation that's allowed to do this, and they've been doing it for more than a decade. KPIX San Francisco tried it in the 90s, but CBS pulled the plug on it after a few years.

I haven't been in Hawaii since the 1980s, but last time I was there, they time-shifted everything, and late news started at 9:30 on one affiliate, and 10:00 for the other 2. So Hawaii is also a special case.

 

[bpatrick]

Re: Is your network affiliated outlet's 11/10PM newscast ready to expand to a ho

I recall that in the '70s WCCO Minneapolis-St. Paul
tried a 45-minute newscast (10-10:45 CT) and was
hard-put to fill that time every night; they abandoned
it long before becoming a CBS o&o.

I'm not sure viewers in the Eastern time zone would
want to watch news until midnight, but you never know.

 

[ShawtyBlack_ATL]

Here in ATL, FOX 5 NEWS airs news from 10pm-11:30pm. I don't see any of the other stations adding 30 more mintues to the 11 o'clock hour.

 

[TheRob]

I once applied at an ABC affiliate that ran an hour of news at 10:00. They had always pushed Nightline back 30 minutes, and used the 10:30 for syndication. After the last syndication contract expired, they decided to expand the news because it was cheaper, not because they had all sorts of terrific news content.

 

[Mario500]

Re: Is your network affiliated outlet's 11/10PM newscast ready to expand to a ho

Considering the size of the Mobile-Pensacola TV market, recent terminations of employees, an increase in paid programming during the daytime, the quiet cancellation of a one-hour newscast 9:00 AM newscast (on WKRG-TV), and the quantity of local news reported on a daily basis, I doubt WKRG-TV (CBS) and WPMI-TV (NBC) would want to follow WEAR-TV’s (ABC) example of having a one-hour newscast at 10:00 PM and delaying network programming at the expense of viewers. Over the past 25 years, WEAR-TV has delayed ABC’s late night programming in favor of situation comedies, a local viewer interaction program called “Channel 3 News Extra”, a local weekly high school football program at 11:00 PM called “Friday Night Final”, and finally an expanded 10:00 PM newscast a few years ago.

 

[DToTheJ]

Re: Is your network affiliated outlet's 11/10PM newscast ready to expand to a ho

I recall that in the '70s WCCO Minneapolis-St. Paul
tried a 45-minute newscast (10-10:45 CT) and was
hard-put to fill that time every night; they abandoned
it long before becoming a CBS o&o.

Little did they know, they would be a step ahead of the times, now that networks start their late night programming at :35 after the hour following late news...

That reminds me, will KOVR now actually be airing an hour and 35 minutes of news, as opposed to just one hour?

 

[DToTheJ]

Re: Is your network affiliated outlet's 11/10PM newscast ready to expand to a ho

Over the past 25 years, WEAR-TV has delayed ABC’s late night programming in favor of... a local weekly high school football program at 11:00 PM called “Friday Night Final..."

I don't think WEAR is at fault for this. I believe the FCC mandates at least one television station in each market in the Southeast to delay late-night programming on Friday nights in the fall in favor of a local high-school football recap show.

 

[Mario500]

Re: Is your network affiliated outlet's 11/10PM newscast ready to expand to a ho

I don't think WEAR is at fault for this. I believe the FCC mandates at least one television station in each market in the Southeast to delay late-night programming on Friday nights in the fall in favor of a local high-school football recap show.

On Fridays, WALA-TV uses the second half of the one-hour newscast at 9:00 PM to report on local high school football, followed by WKRG-TV and WPMI-TV using much of their late half-hour newscasts to report on the same subject, but WEAR-TV continues to have a regular one-hour newscast at 10:00 PM.

 

[ixnay]

With the Leno numbers, I think it's only a matter of time (and probably not much time) before a NBC affiliate somewhere jumps ship & runs 90 minutes of local news 9-10:30CT. (10-11:30ET/PT)

Is NBC contractually committed to a full season of Leno? I mean, he did host Tonight for 17 years and is considered an "institution" at the Peacock (in Burbank if not at 30 Rock), no?

Then again, Ed Sullivan's status as an "institution" didn't prevent the Eye from axing him after 23 years...

ixnay

 

[LKellerIII]

With the Leno numbers, I think it's only a matter of time (and probably not much time) before a NBC affiliate somewhere jumps ship & runs 90 minutes of local news 9-10:30CT. (10-11:30ET/PT)

Is NBC contractually committed to a full season of Leno? I mean, he did host Tonight for 17 years and is considered an "institution" at the Peacock (in Burbank if not at 30 Rock), no?

Then again, Ed Sullivan's status as an "institution" didn't prevent the Eye from axing him after 23 years...

ixnay

I don't see the analogy with Sullivan. Different kind of show, different era.

I doubt NBC is contractually obligated to tape or air a full season of Leno, so if they consider the show an unmitigated disaster, they could certainly pay him off and cancel the show. But NBC has said repeatedly that lower 10:00 PM ratings are to be expected, but are worth it considering the savings they are realizing from not having to pay for 5 hours a week of one-hour dramas. I think they'll commit to the experiment for at least one season.

Remember that when they took Leno off the Tonight Show, they considered him a potential threat if ABC hired him for late night. If NBC cancels Leno after a year, I think he would be considered damaged goods, and less likely to go back to late night. It's not like he needs the money - he can just go into semi-retirement, and he'd be popular doing stand up in places like Vegas.

The only wild cards are the affiliates - if they scream too loudly about the erosion in ratings for their late news, NBC could reconsider.

 

[azumanga]

I doubt NBC is contractually obligated to tape or air a full season of Leno, so if they consider the show an unmitigated disaster, they could certainly pay him off and cancel the show.

Though lest we forget Roseanne's daytime talk show a few years back -- her show tanked shortly after it debuted, but according to the contract, the producers and the stations carrying it were obliged to keep it going for at least two years.

 

[Mario500]

Re: Is your network affiliated outlet's 11/10PM newscast ready to expand to a ho

Over the past 25 years, WEAR-TV has delayed ABC’s late night programming in favor of... a local weekly high school football program at 11:00 PM called “Friday Night Final..."

I don't think WEAR is at fault for this. I believe the FCC mandates at least one television station in each market in the Southeast to delay late-night programming on Friday nights in the fall in favor of a local high-school football recap show.

I must make an important correction to my earlier post: WEAR-TV’s Friday night high school football program is titled “Prep Football Final”. The "Friday Night" error came from recalling the day of the week when the program airs.

I must also mention WALA-TV repurposing the second half-hour of the 9:00 PM newscast titled “First and 10” (Friday night high school football) for broadcast at 11:00 PM on WFNA-TV, which has recently changed call letters from WBPG-TV. As a result, “Seinfeld” is moved to 1:00 AM on this CW Television Network affiliate, delaying other syndicated programs by half an hour.