Rebel Boston TV station surrenders, will broadcast NBC's Leno

The would-be Boston uprising -- prompted by a rebel television station that said it was refusing to carry Jay Leno at 10 p.m. in the fall -- ended this afternoon with a whimper.

NBC Universal announced that its dispute with Boston's WHDH-TV has been resolved, clearing the way for the prime-time Jay Leno show to be broadcast in that market. NBC had threatened to yank all its programming from WHDH if the station preempted Leno for local news.

“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.”

John Eck, president of the NBC TV Network, added: “We are very pleased that WHDH will carry Jay Leno’s new prime-time comedy show at 10 p.m. this fall on NBC. We look forward to working closely with the station on a successful launch in Boston of this show, featuring one of the most bankable stars in the business.”

-- Meg James

Please help save 'Chuck': The campaign to get a Nerd Third

Abject begging isn't pretty, but "Chuck" (7 p.m. Central, Monday, NBC) deserves it.

The show is in danger of cancellation, but this delightful spy dramedy should absolutely get a third season.

So, it's begging time: Please watch Monday's "Chuck" and the rest of the the show's second season, which ends on April 27. For the reasons I stated in the video above, I just adore this show. I would be truly saddened if I had to think that it wasn't returning for  another season.

In the course of doing this job, I've become much more accepting about TV cancellations. They happen every spring, they make people mad or sad, but they're a fact of life. I was at peace with "Veronica Mars" ending a few years ago, I would have eventually been fine with "Friday Night Lights" not returning (but I was glad when NBC renewed it for two more seasons).

But I'm absolutely not going to sit back and passively accept that "Chuck" may not come back. This is a show that makes millions of people happy every week. It's just the kind of well-crafted escapism that people need in these trying times. And it's one of the few shows that parents can watch with their older kids and enjoy as a family. (For some of my past praise of "Chuck," look here and here.)

An uptick in viewership might convince NBC to keep the show around, so tell two or three or 39 of your closest friends to check out the show, if they haven't already. (If they're not familiar with "Chuck," they can catch up via this video.)

You can also send supportive notes via the NBC Web site (start here and choose "Chuck" as the show you want to comment on).

Snail mail can also be effective: Write to Ben Silverman, co-chairman of NBC, at this address: 3000 W. Alameda, Burbank, CA 91523. Write to NBC's president of prime-time programming, Angela Bromstad, at 100 Universal City Plaza. Bldg 1320, 4th Floor, Universal City, CA 91608.

There are many more creative ideas on how to support the show at the following sites, among others: Give Me My Remote's recent "Chuck Week" kicked off much of the online "save this show" activity (take their polls; enjoy the unofficial soundtrack). Zachary-Levi.net is another site with tons of excellent info and updates on the pro-"Chuck" campaign (and the "Chuck" star is appreciative of everything fans are doing to save the show).

Chucktv.net has been doing a stellar job of drawing attention to the show's plight. Go to  to find out more about that site's campaign and to get some fun "Save Chuck" graphics for your Web site. The talented David J. Loehr, a Watcher commenter, contributed several Twitter avatars to the online campaign.

So how much danger is "Chuck" really in? Far more than I'd like. The show is produced by Warner Bros. Television, not by NBC Universal's own in-house production company. Because it won't necessarily share in the ancillary revenue from "Chuck," NBC doesn't have as much incentive to keep the show going as it did in the case of "Friday Night Lights," which is partly a Universal Media Studios production.

Still, thanks to a passionate fan base and heaps of critical acclaim -- and the network's own love for the show -- NBC got creative and found a way to keep "FNL" alive via a deal with DirecTV.

NBC should think outside the box once more and find a way to bring "Chuck" back for a full season. I'm not nearly done laughing at the Nerd Herd at Buy More, marveling at the comedic genius of the grunts emitted by John Casey (Adam Baldwin), enjoying the way that stars Zachary Levi and Yvonne Strahovski, who play Chuck and Sarah, make it look easy to pull of deft comedy and poignant drama in the same scene.

No, I'm not nearly done with "Chuck." If you're not either, now is the time to make your voice Herd. Er, I mean heard.

A few more "Chuck" links:

Curt Wagner of Show Patrol talks to Vik Sahay, who plays Lester on the show.
Alan Sepinwall talks to co-creator Chris Fedak about the show's second season. Vote for "Chuck" in Watch With Kristin's Save One Show poll. (Yes, I want "Dollhouse" to come back too. But Joss Whedon has an army of fans standing at the ready to campaign for his shows. That's why I'm putting my focus on doing what I can for "Chuck" this spring.)

Adult film star Marilyn Chambers dies at 56
A friend of adult film star Marilyn Chambers says the actress has been found dead at her home in northern Los Angeles County.
CHILE: Images of Exile
SANTIAGO, Apr 13 (IPS)Painful images of the exile suffered by thousands of Chileans during the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet and of the expressions of solidarity from the countries that took them in are presented in a new book with a prologue by internationally renowned writer Ariel Dorfman.