Should Barack Obama decide to conduct weekly "fireside chats" with Jay Leno, that would be quite all right with NBC stations.
Peacock affils are nervously waiting to see how NBC's plans to strip Leno on weeknights at 10 p.m. evolve -- and more importantly, how it impacts their business.
At least one station -- Boston's WHDH -- is already threatening not to air Leno at all, preferring to run local news in the hour instead.
For Peacock affils, the Leno experiment couldn't have come at a more difficult time.
In an age where advertising is drying up, revenues are shrinking and viewers have plenty of other news options, the Leno move is making plenty of station execs jittery.
"We're trying to be as accommodating as possible," one NBC insider says. "They're nervous, and rightfully so."
Leno, after all, will serve as a lead-in to their late newscasts starting in September. That could be a game-changer in certain markets, as NBC stations may wind up with a smaller lead-in audience than they do now with scripted 10 p.m. dramas (at least on some nights).
Because of all that uncertainty, the Peacock's affiliate board is set to meet later this month to figure out how Leno's primetime strip is going to impact their business -- particularly their 11 p.m. newscasts.
Broadcasting & Cable first reported last month that the stations have been conducting a study to see how viewers actually watch "The Tonight Show" -- and how there might be ways to produce and schedule Leno's new series in order to help out affiliates.
"We'll sit down with NBC and figure out what we both want to see and what decisions will be made," Scripps TV senior VP Brian Lawlor told B&C.
Virtually every scenario has been discussed -- and NBC says any proposal that makes sense is on the table.
Some of the more radical ideas are unlikely. NBC told WHDH that any Leno pre-emption would violate their contract with the net. Others have also floated the idea of moving local newscasts to 10 p.m., with Leno at 10:35 and "The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien" in its usual 11:35 home.
Stations also have floated the idea of possibly putting in a short news pod at 10 p.m. (in order still to take advantage of the 9 p.m. lead-in), before turning things over to Leno at 10:05.
A more likely scenario, however, has NBC's 9 p.m. fare bleeding into 10 p.m. by a few minutes (a common practice at the nets already), in the hopes of keeping audiences seated for Leno.
NBC and the stations also are working on ways to seamlessly jump from Leno to local newscasts. Because it's stripped, the show doesn't need to run credits every single night -- which means Leno could toss things directly to the local stations in a split second. (Stations still might opt to run a commercial between Leno and their news, of course.)
NBC has set up an internal task force to figure out the best way to roll out the show.
"(We're looking) to make it distinct, and it should play perfectly in primetime, where there is a massive audience," NBC Entertainment/Universal Media Studios co-chair Ben Silverman says. "It will still be a comedy show, but with more segments and formats."
Of course, no one knows how Leno will perform at 10 p.m. -- or whether he'll be able to hold auds throughout the entire hour. Stations are especially concerned because gabbers like Leno's "Tonight Show" usually lose viewers after the monologue, comedy bits and marquee guests are done.
That's why stations have been adamant that the show end with a big comedy bit before the news; that could even include Leno's monologue -- easily the most popular part of his current show.
The new strip, which will not be called "The Jay Leno Show" (several other names are under consideration), is expected to de-emphasize celebrity interviews and instead expand its comedy segments. Leno is expected to leave the studio more often and add primetime-style features.
"This is not going to be a latenight talkshow," one Peacock insider says. "This is a new primetime comedy hour."
Such a move would differentiate the new Leno series from "The Tonight Show," and also potentially attract a younger primetime crowd. It also may help avoid any booking battles with O'Brien's "Tonight Show," which may come out of necessity, as it's unlikely CBS, ABC, Fox or CW will allow their talent to show up on a rival net in primetime.
That's not to say there still won't be a spot for big names like Obama, whose appearance on the "Tonight Show" last month drew 14.6 million viewers -- the gabber's biggest ratings in more than 10 years.
For stations worried that the new Leno show will never provide them with the kind of latenight lead-in a scripted drama would, the Obama appearance gave them hope. (It's also been a long time since a scripted show, like "ER" in its heyday, offered up a huge audience at 10 p.m.)
"There's an opportunity to really eventize the show," Silverman says. "In the fall, the show's going to have an anything-can-happen-here vibe. And the question of who's going to be on the show will drive up interest."
Contact Michael Schneider at
mike.schneider@variety.com