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NBC Considering Giving 10pm/9pm Back To Affiliates


Georgie56

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5 hours ago, Nelson R. said:

Okay it’s gonna good or bad for NBC. Ed Ansin WHDH owner is laughing from Heaven.

16 hours ago, Benny Vandergast said:

It will be interesting to see what happens in markets (there are quite a few) where a single newsroom produces a Fox affiliate 10pm news and an NBC 11pm.

Yeah I’ve been wondering WRAL here in does WRAZ newscast I don’t think FOX will mind since in some way affiliates push back at FOX a lot. FOX remember is only a network during prime time and sports. Outside of that affiliates do syndicates or news.

Edited by Gavin M.
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25 minutes ago, Gavin M. said:

Okay it’s gonna good or bad for NBC. Ed Ansin WHDH owner is laughing from Heaven.

I was just about to say the same…this will go either very well or very bad. If it goes south, within a year they will scramble to implement the 10 pm hour back. I could see most stations moving their news an hour earlier or a syndicated show in that slot. This is going to be very interesting indeed though. 

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1 hour ago, Gavin M. said:

Okay it’s gonna good or bad for NBC. Ed Ansin WHDH owner is laughing from Heaven.

Yeah I’ve been wondering WRAL here in does WRAZ newscast I don’t think FOX will mind since in some way affiliates push back at FOX a lot. FOX remember is only a network during prime time and sports. Outside of that affiliates do syndicates or news.

Capitol will just simulcast on WRAZ…they already simulcast the 4:30-7am, noon and the 4pm anyway. WRAZ could have WRAL’s news at 11 if the Tonight Show moves to 10:35 or 11 but if the Tonight Show doesn’t move up there’s no need to do that. I just can’t see that happening.

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2 hours ago, Nelson R. said:

Capitol will just simulcast on WRAZ…they already simulcast the 4:30-7am, noon and the 4pm anyway. WRAZ could have WRAL’s news at 11 if the Tonight Show moves to 10:35 or 11 but if the Tonight Show doesn’t move up there’s no need to do that. I just can’t see that happening.

Ik I just said I don’t think FOx will mind mind since it’s affiliates know how to clap back at the network.

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6 hours ago, Superdude said:

 

This doesn't read as any new information, but rather just analysis of the original story that the WSJ broke several weeks ago.

 

I do agree though that it seems more than likely that the 10pm hour goes away and will probably be replaced by more local news in most places, especially the small markets. For local stations, that's probably the best bang for their buck – no extra costs ("you've been producing half an hour, so we'll promote you to doing 90 minutes!") and a lot more ad inventory and therefore more revenue potential for the stations.

 

I doubt we'll see a late national newscast as so many have speculated in here. If NBC is going to give back the hour to affiliates, then they're going to give back the hour. I suppose some stations on the east coast could take the west coast edition of Nightly on a tape delay if they really wanted to, but that sounds kind of lame. At the most, maybe NBC would offer the option for stations to carry that Tom Llamas show or whatever else is on late on NBC News Now at that hour.

 

One idea I haven't seen brought up is whether the stations in the Central and Mountain time zones would be able to shift primetime to 8-10 and basically expand prime access to the 7pm hour and also still have a decent lead-in to the 10pm newscasts. If so, that would make programming neatly uniform nationwide with prime access until 8pm, primetime 8-10, and then local news at 10. If so, then this move would really work out well for the stations in the middle part of the country.

 

I would love to see some stations take this opportunity to do their own local late night talk shows. That would be fascinating, and perhaps some big market stations could pull it off. But I bet the cost-benefit analysis on that doesn't even get close to penciling out.

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4 hours ago, C Block said:

whether the stations in the Central and Mountain time zones would be able to shift primetime to 8-10 and basically expand prime access to the 7pm hour and also still have a decent lead-in to the 10pm newscasts.

KWGN and KPLR (both CW affiliates) already do this. KPLR airs a newscast at 7pm.

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4 hours ago, C Block said:

 

This doesn't read as any new information, but rather just analysis of the original story that the WSJ broke several weeks ago.

 

I do agree though that it seems more than likely that the 10pm hour goes away and will probably be replaced by more local news in most places, especially the small markets. For local stations, that's probably the best bang for their buck – no extra costs ("you've been producing half an hour, so we'll promote you to doing 90 minutes!") and a lot more ad inventory and therefore more revenue potential for the stations.

 

I doubt we'll see a late national newscast as so many have speculated in here. If NBC is going to give back the hour to affiliates, then they're going to give back the hour. I suppose some stations on the east coast could take the west coast edition of Nightly on a tape delay if they really wanted to, but that sounds kind of lame. At the most, maybe NBC would offer the option for stations to carry that Tom Llamas show or whatever else is on late on NBC News Now at that hour.

 

One idea I haven't seen brought up is whether the stations in the Central and Mountain time zones would be able to shift primetime to 8-10 and basically expand prime access to the 7pm hour and also still have a decent lead-in to the 10pm newscasts. If so, that would make programming neatly uniform nationwide with prime access until 8pm, primetime 8-10, and then local news at 10. If so, then this move would really work out well for the stations in the middle part of the country.

 

I would love to see some stations take this opportunity to do their own local late night talk shows. That would be fascinating, and perhaps some big market stations could pull it off. But I bet the cost-benefit analysis on that doesn't even get close to penciling out.

The TVNewsCheck article was an opinion/analysis piece.  The only public statement made by NBCUni was earlier in the week, during an investment conference, where they said it and other options are under evaluation. It would give back the hour to local stations.  That means no national newscast.  It means any station can do what they want (except broadcast a competing network's 10 pm show) - a syndicated talk show, more of the ubiquitous Family Feud, or other game show,  off net reruns or expansion of local news etc.

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5 hours ago, NowBergen said:

The TVNewsCheck article was an opinion/analysis piece.  The only public statement made by NBCUni was earlier in the week, during an investment conference, where they said it and other options are under evaluation. It would give back the hour to local stations.  That means no national newscast.  It means any station can do what they want (except broadcast a competing network's 10 pm show) - a syndicated talk show, more of the ubiquitous Family Feud, or other game show,  off net reruns or expansion of local news etc.

Yes, is that not basically what I said?

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I can't help but think that maybe NBC should test the waters on one or two nights of the week before committing to this big a change for all seven nights. Friday and Saturday nights would be a good place to start.

 

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1 hour ago, mre29 said:

I can't help but think that maybe NBC should test the waters on one or two nights of the week before committing to this big a change for all seven nights. Friday and Saturday nights would be a good place to start.

 

They could do Friday, but Saturday nights with Notre Dame (and the Big Ten in the future), along with SNL live coast-to-coast, it's impossible there. I'd say more Tuesday since that's a struggle night for them, and Wednesday and Thursday are currently Dick Wolf territory with the Chicagos and L&O shows (I have no idea how they balance that out with three hours on each unless a show goes on the block at the end of the season).

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On 10/10/2022 at 12:25 AM, mrschimpf said:

They could do Friday, but Saturday nights with Notre Dame (and the Big Ten in the future), along with SNL live coast-to-coast, it's impossible there. I'd say more Tuesday since that's a struggle night for them, and Wednesday and Thursday are currently Dick Wolf territory with the Chicagos and L&O shows (I have no idea how they balance that out with three hours on each unless a show goes on the block at the end of the season).

 

They would just have to get creative -- starting with using more of the 52 weeks in a year.

 

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The way I see this, I think NBC would be wise to make this move partially, especially given the leverage Dick Wolf has now with two of his three signature franchises (Chicago and Law & Order; FBI is on CBS) buoying much of NBC's serial street cred and filling three hours each night. If NBC does go through with this, I see this happening:

  • Friday and Saturday nights for sure will be truncated to two hours, especially given what little leverage the affiliates have now to broadcast local news especially due to Saturday Night Live and the impending college football deals (likely ACC and Big Ten with the existing Notre Dame a potential fold into the latter given the allure of an annual rivalry with Northwestern). NBC could then use Friday to program Dateline and movies or specials when live sports (college football, NASCAR, Olympic trials, etc.) is not a factor. It would also give the local affiliates more carte blanche to resolve whatever local news challenges they may have (at least compared to CBS and especially Fox affiliates). For example, KPRC in Houston airs a high school football program in between 15-20 minutes of the 10pm news and The Tonight Show, and with NBC dropping one hour of primetime, it would most likely expand the high school football program to a full half-hour at 10 p.m. with KPRC airing a full 9 p.m. newscast - all while keeping The Tonight Show to air on time at 10:30 p.m CT.
  • Emphasis on Saturday nights, I shall mention that newscasts on this night are usually the least important. Borrowing a quote from @mrschimpf on the TEGNA thread, "governments are closed, the crime roll is shorter, and it's packed with stories where you basically have to get people out to go to festivals and funruns, and network/corporate must-runs, along with weekday junk you want to burn off ahoy". Though I do have to disagree with @mrschimpfabout Houston (where crime seems to make a bigger percentage of the A-block on weekends, if not for the historical role Houston's Fox O&O (KRIV) indirectly played in launching COPS for Fox). While I would expect more of the same (as in TWICE if not THREE times the amount of filler content), it would still be better than doing what KPRC has been doing for the most part in Saturday prime access which has usually been to air an infomercial or real estate presentation show usually associated with weekend mornings (though their post-SNL block of Texas Music Scene and Texas Eats is legit). A Saturday night interview program would work wonders, though, as would a sort of local version of SNL possibly involving local college students. And that's another thing - if KING wanted to bring back Almost Live! (sensing that midnight in Houston when SNL signs off is 10pm in Seattle), this would be almost the perfect opportunity to do so.
  • If Dick Wolf wants to play hardball, the network should simply give him Wednesdays and either Tuesdays or Thursdays for his franchises. That leaves (assuming they do get renewed) La Brea and Quantum Leap for serials. Monday may be too important of a day to lighten up, so I'm guessing Tuesdays will be the day to shed an hour along with Friday and Saturday since three days without 10/9 programming may be too much for NBC's own liking if they were to go the partial route. If Tuesdays are shed to two hours, Law & Order can air on either Mondays or Thursdays, and La Brea and Quantum Leap can go to Tuesdays. Whatever remnants of NBC's non-SNL comedy offerings do exist can go in the spare three-hour block, with a new serial or unscripted program not named Dateline filling the third if not also the second hour as well. Either way, whatever comedies do get greenlit will have to compete with Chuck Lorre's comedy empire at CBS - Bob Hearts Abishola on Mondays, Young Sheldon on Thursdays.
  • As for unscripted shows, just like non-sports Saturdays can be used to air game shows in the same way ABC does on Sunday nights during the summer, NBC can use the post-Sunday Night Football period on Sunday nights to carry The Voice and America's Got Talent, provided those don't go the way of Dancing With the Stars (in other words, moving to Peacock like what just happened to Days of our Lives and eventually Late Night with Seth Meyers).

If NBC does go through with two hours across the board save for live sports on the weekends, Dick Wolf's franchises will have to be spread across three nights, most likely with the Chicago franchise taking turns to fill 36 weeks and crossover specials being limited to Sunday Big Events not unlike what NBC used to air in the halcyon "Loud as a Peacock" days under Fred Silverman, and also perhaps with Law & Order: SVU being moved to Fridays and paired with Dateline that would give the "Friday night death slot" a whole new meaning - as in a sort of scripted/unscripted, female-oriented true crime escapism that would compete with CBS's older-skewing Friday night serial block. Do note that NBC will want to debut at least one if not two new hours of programming every year as opposed to eventually ending up with a stale programming block.

 

The big wild card in all this is the Capital One College Bowl, which usually airs around this time. More than likely, should NBC go forward with it after this year assuming it too doesn't end up on Peacock, this program would remain on Fridays before Dateline during the period between August and October, with NBC likely airing either an expanded Dateline or a serial such as the aforementioned Law & Order: SVU in the 8/7 slot.

 

CORRECTION: Thanks for reminding me @NowBergenthat New Amsterdam is ending next year. Forgot about that...

Edited by SS8609
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3 hours ago, SS8609 said:

The way I see this, I think NBC would be wise to make this move partially, especially given the leverage Dick Wolf has now with two of his three signature franchises (Chicago and Law & Order; FBI is on CBS) buoying much of NBC's serial street cred and filling three hours each night. If NBC does go through with this, I see this happening:

  • Friday and Saturday nights for sure will be truncated to two hours, especially given what little leverage the affiliates have now to broadcast local news especially due to Saturday Night Live and the impending college football deals (likely ACC and Big Ten with the existing Notre Dame a potential fold into the latter given the allure of an annual rivalry with Northwestern). NBC could then use Friday to program Dateline and movies or specials when live sports (college football, NASCAR, Olympic trials, etc.) is not a factor. It would also give the local affiliates more carte blanche to resolve whatever local news challenges they may have (at least compared to CBS and especially Fox affiliates). For example, KPRC in Houston airs a high school football program in between 15-20 minutes of the 10pm news and The Tonight Show, and with NBC dropping one hour of primetime, it would most likely expand the high school football program to a full half-hour at 10 p.m. with KPRC airing a full 9 p.m. newscast - all while keeping The Tonight Show to air on time at 10:30 p.m CT.
  • Emphasis on Saturday nights, I shall mention that newscasts on this night are usually the least important. Borrowing a quote from @mrschimpf on the TEGNA thread, "governments are closed, the crime roll is shorter, and it's packed with stories where you basically have to get people out to go to festivals and funruns, and network/corporate must-runs, along with weekday junk you want to burn off ahoy". Though I do have to disagree with @mrschimpfabout Houston (where crime seems to make a bigger percentage of the A-block on weekends, if not for the historical role Houston's Fox O&O (KRIV) indirectly played in launching COPS for Fox). While I would expect more of the same (as in TWICE if not THREE times the amount of filler content), it would still be better than doing what KPRC has been doing for the most part in Saturday prime access which has usually been to air an infomercial or real estate presentation show usually associated with weekend mornings (though their post-SNL block of Texas Music Scene and Texas Eats is legit). A Saturday night interview program would work wonders, though, as would a sort of local version of SNL possibly involving local college students. And that's another thing - if KING wanted to bring back Almost Live! (sensing that midnight in Houston when SNL signs off is 10pm in Seattle), this would be almost the perfect opportunity to do so.
  • If Dick Wolf wants to play hardball, the network should simply give him Wednesdays and either Tuesdays or Thursdays for his franchises. That leaves (assuming they do get renewed) La BreaQuantum Leap and New Amsterdam for serials. Monday may be too important of a day to lighten up, so I'm guessing Tuesdays will be the day to shed an hour along with Friday and Saturday since three days without 10/9 programming may be too much for NBC's own liking if they were to go the partial route. If Tuesdays are shed to two hours, Law & Order can air on either Mondays or Thursdays, and La Brea and Quantum Leap can go to Tuesdays. New Amsterdam can air at 10pm in whichever weekday three-hour block does not get eaten by Wolf. Whatever remnants of NBC's non-SNL comedy offerings do exist can go in the spare three-hour block, perhaps for both hours before New Amsterdam (or the first hour with a new serial or unscripted program not named Dateline filling the second hour). Either way, whatever comedies do get greenlit will have to compete with Chuck Lorre's comedy empire at CBS - Bob Hearts Abishola on Mondays, Young Sheldon on Thursdays.
  • As for unscripted shows, just like non-sports Saturdays can be used to air game shows in the same way ABC does on Sunday nights during the summer, NBC can use the post-Sunday Night Football period on Sunday nights to carry The Voice and America's Got Talent, provided those don't go the way of Dancing With the Stars (in other words, moving to Peacock like what just happened to Days of our Lives and eventually Late Night with Seth Meyers).

If NBC does go through with two hours across the board save for live sports on the weekends, Dick Wolf's franchises will have to be spread across three nights, most likely with the Chicago franchise taking turns to fill 36 weeks and crossover specials being limited to Sunday Big Events not unlike what NBC used to air in the halcyon "Loud as a Peacock" days under Fred Silverman, and also perhaps with Law & Order: SVU being moved to Fridays and paired with Dateline that would give the "Friday night death slot" a whole new meaning - as in a sort of scripted/unscripted, female-oriented true crime escapism that would compete with CBS's older-skewing Friday night serial block. Also, New Amsterdam would likely be headed for the chopping block if not Peacock, since NBC will want to debut at least one if not two new hours of programming every year as opposed to eventually ending up with a stale programming block.

 

The big wild card in all this is the Capital One College Bowl, which usually airs around this time. More than likely, should NBC go forward with it after this year assuming it too doesn't end up on Peacock, this program would remain on Fridays before Dateline during the period between August and October, with NBC likely airing either an expanded Dateline or a serial such as the aforementioned Law & Order: SVU in the 8/7 slot.

 

You do realize New Amsterdam is on its final season?

Dick Wolf would never agree to airing either Chicago PD or L&O:OC on Tuesdays opposite his own shows on CBS. 

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5 hours ago, NowBergen said:

 

You do realize New Amsterdam is on its final season?

Dick Wolf would never agree to airing either Chicago PD or L&O:OC on Tuesdays opposite his own shows on CBS. 

Only mentioning if NBC wanted to pull the trigger early, but it's fair to say asides from New Amsterdam (thanks for your reminder) there isn't much for NBC to cut or outsource to Peacock if they were to make the move. Also depends on what CBS intends to do going forward with its blocks. If Dick Wolf wanted to go with dominating two of the four networks on one night he could, but he could very well be like Oprah Winfrey and not have his shows cannibalizing each other. If CBS keeps the FBIs on Tuesday and he decides against counterprogramming, the Law & Orders can go on Mondays or Thursdays, depending on which night NBC wants to use for non-SNL comedy to diversify the primetime lineup instead of being just dependent on serials, sports and reality competitions, because it's hard to justify writing off the laughter when CBS and ABC haven't had much trouble lately broadcasting sustainable sitcoms post-Friends & Frasier.

 

On an unrelated note, I do miss the Cancel Bear...

Edited by SS8609
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If NBC really wants to cut an hour, do we really need FOUR hours of Today?

 

Yes, it's news and in the morning, but i'm sure the affiliates wouldn't mind getting an hour or two back in the AM.

Maybe ditch the 9am hour and make Hoda & Jenna it's own show.  Megyn Kelly should have spelled the end of that timeslot.

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I'm all for stations doing a 9/10p newscast to compete with Fox and MNTV/CW stations with only two hours of "prime".  It would come in handy as a universal alternative to whenever Fox has sports on during the time.  The only problem would be for those JSA/SSA stations that are already "maxed out" on news programming under the 15 percent rule.  That's a high profile timeslot to just "fill in" with something else, and cutting from elsewhere in the schedule would seriously jeopardize their output if they already do a full compliment of newscasts.  Maybe this could force their hand to "move" to the parent station to be under complete ownership?  We shall see...

 

Simulcasting shouldn't be a problem for stations like WRAL/WRAZ, although losing the WTVD newscast on WLFL does make them the only game in town during that time.  It could be an issue for stations like WDSM and WRLH who rely on an NBC station (WHO and WWBT, respectively)  who produce the FOX newcasts for them.  That could force the FOX stations to get a new news-producing partner if the NBC station does a newscast for themselves, when it used to be a newscast they were "contracted" to make for them.

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33 minutes ago, Nelson R. said:

Article was later updated. CBS is keeping the hour for now.

And I get the vibe ABC will rely on ABC News more rather than fully give up 10pm (they already produce a lot of summer/midseason filler for the network) 

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