Breslin Fires ABC in Page 1 Ad
Iconoclastic columnist and author Jimmy Breslin bought a front-page advertisement in today’s New York Times to cancel his own late-night network television show.
The ad read:”ABC TELEVISION NETWORK: Your services, such as they are, will no longer be required as of 12-20-86--Jimmy Breslin.”
ABC broadcast “Jimmy Breslin’s People” twice a week. The Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Daily News columnist had complained that while he was told the show would be aired at midnight, it actually was broadcast at varying times around the country.
In New York, the show was on at 1 a.m. Friday and 1:30 a.m. Monday, and Breslin had suggested in a column that WABC-TV’s station manager “do the honorable thing and jump in front of a bus.”
“It was a lot of hard work, and then in New York nobody ever saw it,” Breslin said. “That’s embarrassing.”
He said he would finish the 26 shows called for in his contract, and would consider continuing the show and syndicating it himself.
Jeff Tolvin, an ABC spokesman, said the network had no immediate comment.
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