JAY LENO - ADVERTISING AGE COLUMNIST WHACKS NBC ON "LENO STRATEGY"

ADVERTISING AGE COLUMNIST WHACKS NBC ON "LENO STRATEGY"

Advertising Age media columnist Simon Dumenco has excoriated NBC for its decision to replace its nightly 10 00 p.m. programming with The Jay Leno Show. In an article headlined "Top 10 Lessons to Learn from NBC's Failing Leno Strategy" and subheaded, "How a Network Shot Itself in the Foot by Cynical Cost-Cutting -- and Betraying Its Viewers and Affiliates," Dumenco writes that the network is committing "brand suicide" by its blatant cost-cutting. "People don't want to feel like they're being made to consume a substandard product when they were used to getting a higher-quality product from the same source," he observes, while also noting that the strategy has had a "ripple effect" on all of the network's programming. Dumenco's top-ten list of "lessons" concludes with No. 1 "Jay Leno is a helluva lot more annoying when you're still wide awake." (On Friday, Leno got a slight boost in the ratings from an appearance by First Lady Michelle Obama, which gave him a second-place win in the time period among overall households but put him in third-place among viewers 18-49.)

26/10/2009