Boston station agrees to air Jay Leno show at 10 p.m.

A showdown between media giant NBC Universal and a rebel Boston affiliate that declared it wouldn’t carry Jay Leno’s new prime-time show has ended with a surrender by the station.

WHDH-TV hoisted the white flag Monday, announcing that it wouldn’t bump Leno from prime time. The station sparked a furor this month when it said it would run local news at 10 p.m., Leno’s new time slot. The station’s defiance was all the more pronounced because the comedian with working-class roots is something of a local hero, having grown up near Boston.

“Upon further consideration, we have decided to telecast Jay Leno at 10 p.m. starting in September,” station owner Ed Ansin said in a statement. “Jay is from Andover, where I went to school. I enjoy his humor. We hope the new show is a big success.”

WHDH General Manager Chris Wayland declined to comment further, as did Ansin.

NBC had threatened to yank all its programming from WHDH if the station did not fall into line. The company owns another outlet in the market, a Spanish-language Telemundo station, and could have used it to broadcast NBC shows in Boston.

“NBC had other options,” said Steve Ridge, president of the media strategy group for consulting firm Frank N. Magid Associates.

However, Ridge said WHDH’s short-lived protest demonstrated the anxiety felt by TV station owners who worry that Leno will not be a good lead-in show to their 11 p.m. newscasts -- a highly profitable time period for local stations.

“The challenge for NBC will be to produce a show that brings people in at 10 p.m. and keeps them watching all the way through the show,” Ridge said.

He added that the truce with the Boston station also underscored the contractual relationship between a network and its TV station affiliates. “It is a partnership. Like it or not, they’re in it together,” he said.

--

meg.james@latimes.com