PEJ Quantifies 'Leno Effect'

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Late local news on 186 NBC affiliates studied shows that the
drop-off of local late news viewing was 19.7% in the November 2009 sweep vs.
the same period a year ago, according to a just-released Project for
Excellence in Journalism study of Nielsen data.

That amounted to a collective loss of 1.8 million viewers,
according to PEJ. Viewing of newscasts immediately following the Jay Leno Show were down even more at
21.9%.

By comparison, ABC stations viewership was down 9% compared
to November 2008, while CBS ticked up slightly.

NBC has decided to pull the plug on prime time Leno in part
to help affiliates who complained of the news drop-off.

John Eggerton
John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.