If this Shoptalk item is valid (and probably is), the fat lady is singing.
Bruce Schwoegler
WCBS/Ch.2 (New York) has begun selling half-hour blocks of early evening airtime to infomercials - pre-empting "Entertainment Tonight" for paid, program length commercials. It is rare for a big-city, network- owned station to program infomercials between 7 and 8pm, which is typically the single most watched time period programmed by local stations. But WCBS, under a great deal of pressure from the network to increase profits, made the decision to sell the time outright. Channel 2 viewers expressed shock and outrage Tuesday night when a half-hour infomercial for Time-Life mail-order records aired during the time usually devoted to the syndicated TV magazine show "Entertainment Tonight." Ch.2 insiders said the decision to air the infomercials during the early-evening hours was made at the corporate level by Jonathan Klein, president of the CBS Television Stations division. The ads also ran in similar timeslots on the other 13 CBS- owned television stations. (NY Post)