Maryland Business

By: Liz Farmer

So how bad is Jay Leno’s new show? It’s so bad, a broadcast consultant told me he’s been calling local stations to try and assuage their fears about ratings. (In my story on television news, I wrote about the “Leno Effect” — his show’s poor ratings are hurting the 11 p.m. local television newscasts that follow.)

It’s so bad, the best draw his show could get last week was 5.8 million viewers last Tuesday. Last Monday’s show was the worst of the week, drawing just 4 million viewers. That’s fewer viewers than Fox’s Cops (5 million viewers last week), Cops2 (5.5 million) and CBS’s Crimetime Saturday (5.5 million) which is actually mostly RERUNS of the network’s crime-related shows.

I’m sensing a theme here…maybe Leno needs to add some crime skits to pique viewers’ interest. But that’s not why his show was in Baltimore recently — check out this skit done in Baltimore that aired on Leno’s show last week. (My favorite part is the shot of the lady in the soup shop with a tear streaming down her face.)

The gist of this vignette is Leno lackey Owen Benjamin goes around town to different businesses and creates a one- or two-verse jingle about their store.  The Leno Show has created similar videos for other major cities around the U.S. and it appears as if it’s another way to pander to the major markets where Leno might be able to boost his ratings.

But if you’re not watching the show already, would watching the Baltimore video make you tune in? Seems to me the only thing that could save his show at this point is some kind of wardrobe malfunction or a Jerry Springer-esque mishap to get audiences buzzing and tuning in for the next meltdown.

But then again, as Ari Gold (Jeremy Pivon’s character) said on HBO’s show Entourage – “Drama, this is NBC. They gave ‘Joey‘ 46 episodes.”

Yikes.

By: Liz Farmer

The NFL schedule is out and the Ravens finally get to host a national game after a year’s hiatus. We have to wait until week 12 for a Sunday Night Football face off between Baltimore and Pittsburgh — the first time the teams will have met since the AFC Championship game in January — and I’m sure NFL execs are hoping the drama and playoff runs will be sufficiently built up by then and Ravens starting QB Joe Flacco won’t be going through a sophomore slump.

The Ravens will also make national appearances as the road team in Monday Night Football games against the Browns in week 10 and the Packers in week 13.

Last year, the Ravens only had two nationally televised games — both away — against Pittsburgh on ESPN and Dallas on the NFL Network.

Philadelphia, the Ravens’ counterpart in last year’s playoffs after losing to Arizona in the NFC Championship game, has four national appearances including one game at home on NBC.  Arizona also has three national appearances with one at home on NBC. Reigning champ Pittsburgh has a whopping five national games including two at home on NBC.

It’s nice to see Baltimore getting the love more this year after an 11-5 record and playoff run and story that caught the eye of the national media. Do they have it in them to impress the country again this year?