He's back:
Leno returns to 'Tonight'
Other shorts: Programming notes: TLC dumps Miss America
By Louisa Ada Seltzer
Mar 2, 2010
He's back: Leno returns to 'Tonight'
There were the expected number of jokes at NBC's expense and about the fleeting nature of the "Tonight Show" hosting job. But they seemed more of an awkward necessity than anything else. When Jay Leno returned as host of NBC's "Tonight" last night after a nine-month primetime detour, the host seemed more than anything eager to get back to doing what he does best, spinning out a monologue and offering a broad smile while trying to put the past two controversy-filled months out of mind. Leno did a cold open that riffed on "The Wizard of Oz," showing him waking up surrounded by old friends like band leader Kevin Eubanks and Ross the Intern while recounting his strange "dream" that he had -- the seven-month "Jay Leno Show" experiment that ultimately failed, bringing Leno back to "Tonight" and knocking Conan O'Brien off the network. Leno also made a joke about NBC's ratings going downhill faster than Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn, before settling into a monologue and a set that were not all that different from when he left last year. He did joke about having a case of the nerves because Super Bowl commercial castmates Oprah Winfrey and David Letterman were watching, and indeed CBS's Letterman did crack a few jokes about Leno, but they were more restrained than at the height of the late night controversy in January. "I want to tell you something, tonight is a rough night for my mom. She doesn’t know who to watch — Jimmy Kimmel or Jay," Letterman said. Early numbers indicate that Leno had a big lead on Letterman in the metered markets. Check back with Media Life later today for a full story.
Programming notes: TLC dumps Miss America
There she goes, Miss America. TLC has decided not to renew its TV contract with the Miss America pageant after three years, even after the pageant delivered its best ratings this year. Miss America averaged 4.5 million total viewers in January, its best numbers since moving to cable four years ago, but a mere fraction of what the show once drew on broadcast, despite the fact that TLC spiced things up with a reality show and online voting. It's unclear what this means for the pageant, which went without a TV home for months before CMT finally picked it up after its ABC run ended. After CMT, it moved to TLC. Meanwhile, in other TLC programming, the network will premiere the second half of season one of “Little Chocolatiers” on March 30. The show follows little couple Steve and Katie Hatch, who own Hatch Family Chocolates in Salt Lake City. Elsewhere on cable, E! is bringing back “Kourtney and Khloe Take Miami” for a second season this summer, airing 10 new episodes. On March 9 Travel Channel will premiere “Food Wars,” in which host Camille Ford will lead blind taste tests in cities around the country. On March 28 Fuel TV will roll out “Bubba’s World,” a reality series following the life of motocross racer James “Bubba” Stewart. On April 13 Bravo will launch “9 by Design,” which will look at married designers Bob and Cortney Novogratz and their seven children. TV Land has ordered 10 episodes of “Hot in Cleveland,” a comedy starring Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves and Wendie Malick as three friends from Los Angeles who move to Cleveland. And on broadcast, NBC has ordered a second season of the singing competition “The Sing Off,” although it hasn’t decided when it will air the new episodes.
Cablevision may drop WABC in retrans fight
Get ready for WABC owner Disney to paint Cablevision as the Grinch who stole "Avatar." The media conglomerate and the cable company are locked in a dispute over so-called retrans fees that have become a hot-button issue this year, with broadcasters looking to make up for some of the ad revenue they lost to the recession the past two years. If no deal is reached, the local ABC affiliate will go dark on Cablevision just after midnight on Saturday, less than 24 hours before ABC's Academy Awards air. Cablevision claims that Disney is seeking $40 million for WABC, a channel that Cablevision did not previously pay for. It echoes a dispute late last year between News Corp. and Time Warner Cable over the Fox station, which was resolved just before Fox's coverage of the BCS began. Broadcasters seem determined to stand their ground in the retrans standoff. Just yesterday CBS president Les Moonves told the audience at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference that broadcasters deserve retrans rights after years of cable networks receiving millions in compensation.
Pew: Web becomes No. 2 news source
A wider swath of folks get their news from the internet than newspapers, radio or virtually any other traditional media outside of television. That’s according to a new study from the Pew Research Center, which found that 61 percent get news from the web compared to 50 percent from local newspapers, 17 percent from national newspapers and 54 percent from radio news programs. Seventy-eight percent of Americans say they get news from local TV stations, the most of any platform, followed by national TV stations (73 percent). Among those who go online for their news, 21 percent regularly rely on just one site, while 57 percent routinely visit two to five news web sites per day and 11 percent get news from more than five web sites. The Pew survey found the most popular online news subject is weather (81 percent), with national events (73 percent), health and medicine (66 percent), business and the economy (64 percent) and international events (62 percent) rounding out the top five. Ninety-two percent of Americans use multiple platforms daily to get their fix of news, including 46 percent who use between four and six platforms on a typical day.
Playboy boss: We're trimming our workforce
There certainly was a time Playboy was a study in excesses, and it went well beyond the ample cleavage of its pets. Sprung from the once hugely profitable men’s monthly were all sorts of ventures, from casinos and nightclubs to clothing lines and even a TV show. But pressed as it is these days, the media conglomerate founded by Hugh Hefner is leaning out in a big hurry under new boss Scott Flanders. Flanders' strategy is to farm out the bulk of the company’s operations, keeping only those functions that it can do better and at less cost. That appears to be few. Through various outsourcing deals, Flanders tells the Chicago Tribune he expects to chop the company’s workforce of 573 in half within a year. High on Flanders' list of priorities is outsourcing its TV operations, the Spice Network and Playboy TV. Flanders has already outsourced production of the men’s title that started it all, as well as operations in Asia.
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