The article reports that television’s version of cheap content – The Jay Leno Show on NBC – is not only a ratings failure but there have been some unforeseen consequences.
Everyone is talking about Conan O’Brien’s hair when People Magazine spent $7,000 on Kate Goselin’s new hairdo – the better to put her face on the cover.
And how Jay Leno lost 45% of his 10 pm (eastern) audience on his 5-day a week show.
Now, my readers are smart – real smart. So let me ask you, what happens to a performer in today’s entertainment business that loses 45% of his audience?
He gets his old job back -- in Jay Leno’s case the 11:35 pm start of The Tonight Show.
Conan gets the boot – even though he is apparently being forced out. I don’t know about you but I kind of liked the way Conan told NBC to go to hell after pulling the plug on the show they signed him to do many years ago.
I am fascinated by the human condition called media mismanagement.
Why are so many smart people – and they certainly are not dumb – making one lousy decision after the other?
Arbitron CEO Michael Skarzynski lies and his company fires him. Media executives lie all the time and they get big contracts. The real deal is that the Arbitron board had it in for the turnaround artist who they chose to lead the company through the People Meter challenges.
The board wanted him out. Plain and simple.
Jeff Zucker, the NBC “genius” who has turned the number one broadcast network into number 4 can relate.
He hoarded Conan, found a place to keep Leno from leaving for ABC or Fox and now that it didn’t work, he takes absolutely no responsibility for his strategic mistake and causes a bad situation from going from bad to worse.
I didn’t see Zucker apologize to Ed Ansin, owner of Sunbeam's WHDH-TV in Boston when he took on NBC last spring by refusing to carry Leno at 10 although the network later threatened him with disaffiliation if he stuck to his position.
Zucker’s bosses want him in – he is just like them.
And then there is Steve Jobs who answers to no man or woman – does what he wants and gets that power by earning the right. Nothing succeeds like success.
Except failure.
Lost in the debate over Leno and NBC and what Fox will do is that these companies don’t control the future. They are weaker than they were five years ago.
They are all actively or through poor decision making pissing away their audiences.
Cable television seems to be the beneficiary of cheap programming decisions that Zucker made when he stripped Leno across the schedule five days a week to save major production costs.
Now, there is new research that shows NBC’s Jeff Zucker’s poor late night strategy is helping his cable competitors. It’s as if network television viewers just said to themselves, hand me the remote and started exploring niche cable channels.
As some media watchers predicted, 'The Jay Leno Show' has, in fact, turned out to be one of the biggest mistakes in television programming history. Fans of Leno at the 11:30 hour have failed to migrate along with the former Tonight Show host, leading to a shocking 45 percent drop in ratings for NBC at the 10PM time slot over last year in the key 18-49 demographic, according to Media Life Magazine.
Yet, despite this, ABC and CBS have combined to post only a .1 ratings increase during this same time-frame. So if NBC's former viewers aren't watching 'Leno' and they aren't watching CBS or ABC, what exactly are they doing with all that extra free time? Reading a book?
Cable channels are seeing a 1.6 ratings increase over last year in the time period for 18-49 year old viewers. You can check out which cable shows are leading the charge here.
It’s not clear whether NBC or the other networks can someday get these viewers back. They may be lost forever to DVRs and bad programming decisions.
And Zucker will soon be working for a cable company when Comcast takes over NBC Universal. You and I should be so lucky as to have the nine lives this guy has.
Does all this sound a warning for radio? You may never get the audience back that you are voice tracking and cheap-programming to death.
Forgive me for talking programming when the radio industry is all obsessed with cost cutting, avoiding bankruptcy and suing people.
Yes, Lew Dickey is reportedly uttering the “s” word more often these days and His Eminence Fagreed Suleman, fresh from saving his ass from the unemployment line, has filed a lawsuit against Mitch Dolan alleging it was Dolan who drove Sean Hannity from Citadel’s ABC.
Oh, really?
ABC execs say that it was none other than the Ultimate Bean Counter himself who spearheaded the Hannity contract renegotiation's. The ABC execs cringed at the thought. And you saw the results. Hannity bolted to Clear Channel’s Premiere after working out a deal to stay on Citadel’s WABC, New York.
I always say, when you screw up, sue somebody – it’ll make you feel better.
Anyway, the radio industry has a serious case of putting its head where the sun don’t shine because while they fire popular local morning personalities, import network repeater radio shows, cut local news and services and try to trick listeners with vanilla flavored voice tracking, radio listeners are going elsewhere in droves.
I know Nielsen or Radar or somebody will issue a report any minute saying everyone listens to radio – not to worry.
But worry.
You lose these listeners and you’re not going to get them back and erosion has been going on since before consolidation in 1996. Radiio average quarter hour listening as been declining since the early 90's.
I’m going to address this at my Media Solutions Lab in a few weeks. Where are radio listeners turning as they listen less frequently to radio?
We may find them spending more time online – depending on their ages. Or perhaps, listening to music. (I took my car that has no satellite radio in for service and I already miss the 30 gig hard drive that has Jerry Del Colliano’s Philly, Soul and Rock and Roll channel. And no commercials. No liners other than ones I do behind the wheel. Voiced tracked radio has lost me and I love the radio industry).
You may be surprised to find ex-radio listeners (and I mean older ones, too) devoting time to podcasts, webcasts and – are you ready – things that their Apple apps bring them.
Christmas Day the iTunes store sold the most apps ever after the iPod Touch became the big Christmas present of the year (praise be to my Apple stock!).
Apps.
Not radio.
Not TV.
This decade will bring great change to the media business and while we may laugh at the corporate CEOs that have ruined our great industry, for those who want a chance to survive, we have to do a better job understanding both technology and sociology.
Consumers have changed and the next decade will be about knowing these consumers better than we have ever known them before.
For those of you who would prefer to get Jerry's daily posts by email for FREE, please click here. Then look for a verifying email from FeedBurner to start service.
Thanks for forwarding my pieces to your friends and linking to your websites and boards.
