Affiliate Indifference Causes ABC to Drop ‘Into the Night’

ABC has notified its affiliates that “Into the Night,” its low-rated Monday-through-Thursday late-night series, will be discontinued as of Nov. 14, and will not immediately be replaced, executives said Thursday.

The network will continue with “In Concert ‘91,” a rock-concert series that airs in post-”Nightline” slot on Friday nights.

The decision to drop “Into the Night” and not replace it was prompted by the fact that so few of ABC’s 231 affiliates seem to be interested in a network entertainment show following “Nightline.” Only 38% have been carrying “Into the Night” at its intended time, midnight; others delay it as late as 3 a.m., and 15% don’t run it at all, ABC said.

Phil Beuth, the ABC executive in charge of late-night programming, said in an interview that Chris Lemmon, the most successful of the hosts who have been rotating since Rick Dees left last summer, will remain on “Into the Night” until it goes off the air.

“This was a hard call to make because we’ve got something good going with Chris Lemmon, and we were close to getting the right mix for late-night,” Beuth said. “But it’s a chicken-and-egg situation. The show can’t grow in the ratings unless it gets clearances from stations--and the clearances have been dwindling.”

Coupled with the tight economy and budget trimming at all three major networks, the low clearances convinced ABC to hold off throwing a new product into the late-night market.

“Clearance problems disappear with a home-run show,” Beuth said. “We’ll regroup for a while and come back when the (economic) climate is better.”

He said that he expected stations to pick up movies or syndicated product to replace “Into the Night.”