• Advertising Age, Monday, June 8, 2009 10:16 AM

Jay Leno's new prime-time program, which will make its debut Sept. 14, hasn't gotten media buyers too excited. Buyers are balking at paying prime-time prices for what they view as late-night ratings, since they believe the talk show will draw fewer viewers than ABC and CBS on any given night.

Other programs in the same time slot, including ABC's "The Forgotten" and CBS's "The Good Wife," are expected to do better than Leno. "Leno will guarantee NBC a third-place finish [behind ABC and CBS] in whatever hour he's in, doing on par with what he did in late night," says Shari Ann Brill, senior VP at Carat. NBC executives acknowledge that the "Leno" show is likely to get beaten in the ratings by scripted dramas, but have pointed out that it might be more attractive to viewers when rivals' dramas are in repeats.

Overall, buyers expect ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" on Mondays and its Tuesday-night results show to capture the most households next season. Of the new shows, buyers project the highest household ratings for CBS's "NCIS: Los Angeles," and Fox's "Human Target."

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