NBC owned-and-operated stations in 10 markets plan to stop airing Paramount
Television's Life Moments as of Jan. 6 and replace it with NBC-owned
The Other Half, sources confirmed.
Life Moments actually does a bit better in the ratings than The Other
Half, with the former averaging a 0.9 rating in November sweeps andthe latter a 0.7.
But sources speculated that NBC believes it will do better financially by
putting a show it owns into the time slots instead of keeping a Paramount show
there.
NBC Enterprises will keep Life Moments on KNSD-TV in San Diego;
KNTV-TV in San Francisco; WJAR-TV in Providence, R.I.; and WTVJ-TV in Miami, and
either stop airing it or move it to overnight slots in its other markets.
The show will continue to air on stations in the rest of the country.
"It's a blatant act of screwed-up synergism," one source said. "It's screwing
one major producer of television from doing business with one of the major
groups in television, and I think that's bad for the business."
NBC still will pay Paramount its license fees and two minutes of barter, even
though Life Moments will no longer be airing on 10 of its stations. NBC
Enterprises will also take one-and-a-half minutes of advertising time away from
its stations for NBC Enterprises to sell, sources said.
Neither NBC Enterprises nor Paramount would comment.
Life Moments is a one-hour weekday program that includes three or four
segments on universal events such as weddings, births or reunions. It premiered
last September.
The Other Half features a panel of four men -- Danny Bonaduce, Dick
Clark, Dorian Gregory and Mario Lopez -- talking about issues that interest
women from a man's point of view. The show is in its second season, and it has
been renewed through spring 2003. It is co-owned by NBC Enterprises,
Hearst-Argyle Television Inc. and Gannett Co. Inc.
