This week, NBC did run the first episode of the new Peacock series "The Resort" after the "America's Got Talent" result show, the best platform the network can offer during the summer (just ask the producers of the "Password" reboot). I'm sure they ended the show with "if you want to know what happens next, get Peacock now!" God knows "Girls5Eva" deserves this treatment. Unfortunately, "The Resort"'s airing only had half the audience of "Password" in that time slot the week before.
But instead the network is renewing its Godawful reboot of "Weakest Link" for a third season (with the gobs of canned audience response for a show that worked best in its original UK version with all that awkward silence after Anne Robinson's putdowns) and is even considering bringing back that ten megaton bomb "American Song Contest" (the USA version of Eurovision). If they want a prime time platform for Kelly Clarkson, there has to be a better choice (mine would be an informal, low-key show built around music for an hour, but I also know that variety shows are dead). Mark Jeffries [email protected] [image: width=] <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail> Virus-free.www.avast.com <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail> <#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2> On Sun, Aug 28, 2022 at 2:02 AM Adam Bowie <[email protected]> wrote: > This move would surely highlight the beginning of the end of network > television. Sure, NBC saves some money on not having to produce five hours > of television a week, but they're basically saying that they can't make > anything worth watching any more for those five hours. > > In the short term, maybe the local stations will appreciate being able to > run local news in primetime, but this move will lessen the likelihood of > people tuning into the channel over time, and even the local affiliates > will lose the value of being an NBC affiliate. If you cut the 10pm hour > today, what gets cut next in a year or so? Cut Saturdays entirely? (And > move SNL to Peacock if it still exists by then). Perhaps give up on Fridays > too? Go down to one hour a night? > > Surely a smarter move would be to experiment with what you run in that > timeslot? Perhaps run Peacock shows months after they've been on streaming > to promote the platform. Run Bravo reality fare in the timeslot as a cost > saving measure. Come up with some "event" television that you can strip > across the week. Use the wider NBC Universal family to supply programming - > Sky from the UK for example. > > To just give up entirely feels like you've rolled on the idea of mass > market television at this point. But that feels like a creative failure > rather than the model of network television having completely collapsed > beyond live sport. Big audiences for shows like This Is Us or Yellowstone > surely prove that. > > Perhaps networks need to push harder back against quaint rules about > standards on network TV that are out of place in 2022. There's no reason > why stronger language shouldn't be allowed post 10pm on a network channel - > I doubt there's another country in the world with such restrictive rules. > But in any case, shows can still work and resonate with audiences "live". > The House of Dragons premiere showed that if for no other reason than > social media spoilers, people will watch "live", even on streaming. > > To me, it feels like NBC is out of ideas, and that's a management failure. > At a time when inflation is going to start to hit consumers, and streaming > platforms are unable to sustain continued growth, having a better plan to > do something with a valuable asset like a network television slot feels > essential. > > > Adam > > On Sat, Aug 27, 2022 at 8:29 PM Tom Wolper <[email protected]> wrote: > >> In all of the years we’ve had this list, we’ve noticed that network >> ratings continually fall and somehow the advertising industry still puts up >> the same amount of money, or more, to reach the dwindling number of >> viewers. I can see this being NBC trying to get ahead of an advertising >> crash. >> >> An odd phenomenon I noticed during the pandemic lockdown was that network >> ratings did not go up even though everybody was stuck at home. The fact >> didn’t get the attention of media industry reporters but I can see it as a >> sign to advertisers that those viewers are gone for good and they’re >> letting the networks know that their money will be going elsewhere. >> >> On Sat, Aug 27, 2022 at 10:12 AM Jim Ellwanger <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> >>> I'm sure there's less than zero chance that the affiliates would accept >>> a 7:30 prime-time start (especially if they have long-term contracts for >>> the syndicated programming they're running at that time - even if it's not >>> "Wheel" or "Jeopardy!"). >>> >>> But NBC doesn't seem to be in the business of broadcasting half-hour >>> shows anymore (there are only two on the 2022 fall schedule)... and I don't >>> think anyone currently working there knows their history well enough to >>> realize that a 7:30 prime-time start used to be a thing. >>> >>> >>> On Aug 27, 2022, at 6:54 AM, Mark Jeffries <[email protected]> >>> wrote: >>> >>> If there are affiliates running "Wheel of Fortune" at 7:30, they may >>> complain that it's not a 10 p.m. show (and that's still a thing, although >>> its stablemate "Jeopardy!" seems to have taken over its ratings position). >>> However, "Password" is doing surprisingly well at 10 p.m., although that >>> could be more its "AGT" lead-in (or, as much as many of us may not to >>> admit, the presence of Fallon). >>> >>> Mark Jeffries >>> [email protected] >>> >>> >>> On Fri, Aug 26, 2022 at 8:58 PM PGage <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>>> This is certainly a much less bad idea than making 10:00 the Leno hour, >>>> which cratered the value of three separate time slots (10:00 pm Primetime, >>>> affiliate 11:00 pm news, and 11:35 talk show). >>>> >>>> As of 2017 (last period I could find data for, see >>>> >>>> https://www.bls.gov/opub/btn/volume-7/television-capturing-americas-attention.htm), >>>> viewership at 10:00 was 63% less than what it was at 8:00 (9:00 pm hour is >>>> 95% of 8:00 pm hour). >>>> >>>> I would guess costs for programming the 10:00 hour are not 63% less, so >>>> they save money there, while moving the Tonight Show to 11:00 probably >>>> increases its ratings and makes it more valuable. >>>> >>>> I wonder if they might consider going back to starting Primetime at >>>> 7:30, while giving affiliates the hour at 10:00? That would seem to >>>> maximize network value, while affiliates would double their local news or >>>> syndicated show opportunities. >>>> >>>> On Fri, 26 Aug 2022 at 12:28 PM Mark Jeffries <[email protected]> >>>> wrote: >>>> >>>>> If it happens, it would not be until next fall, and it seems like they >>>>> would want the affils to do an hour of local news at 10 p.m., since they >>>>> are considering moving up Fallon and Meyers 35 minutes to start at 11 p.m. >>>>> (but would Lorne allow "SNL" to be moved up to 11?): >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> https://www.thewrap.com/nbc-preliminary-talks-dropping-primetime-hour/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=breaking_news_5864925 >>>>> >>>>> Of course, we all know what happened the last time NBC tried to make a >>>>> major programming change at 10 p.m. >>>>> >>>>> -- >>>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>>>> Groups "TVorNotTV" group. >>>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>>>> an email to [email protected]. >>>>> To view this discussion on the web visit >>>>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/99bf5fd9-0e29-4aaf-b9d5-629f61f84eefn%40googlegroups.com >>>>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/99bf5fd9-0e29-4aaf-b9d5-629f61f84eefn%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >>>>> . >>>>> >>>> -- >>>> Sent from Gmail Mobile >>>> >>>> -- >>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>>> Groups "TVorNotTV" group. >>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>>> an email to [email protected]. >>>> To view this discussion on the web visit >>>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKGtkYJ%2B%2BJ%2BuP%2BWjwwCECZYop%2BeCNxBGVHqP1PDvRz5vjTYX-g%40mail.gmail.com >>>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKGtkYJ%2B%2BJ%2BuP%2BWjwwCECZYop%2BeCNxBGVHqP1PDvRz5vjTYX-g%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >>>> . >>>> >>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>> Groups "TVorNotTV" group. >>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>> an email to [email protected]. >>> To view this discussion on the web visit >>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAJ_uKi_AfBqMGjY9Ta6JLV%2BdB5%2BXZgpNBMt92GsXi2tbxmpu7w%40mail.gmail.com >>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAJ_uKi_AfBqMGjY9Ta6JLV%2BdB5%2BXZgpNBMt92GsXi2tbxmpu7w%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >>> . >>> >>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>> Groups "TVorNotTV" group. >>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>> an email to [email protected]. >>> To view this discussion on the web visit >>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/9DEBB896-015B-4D14-B39C-55F63A04ADD3%40ellwanger.tv >>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/9DEBB896-015B-4D14-B39C-55F63A04ADD3%40ellwanger.tv?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >>> . >>> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "TVorNotTV" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> To view this discussion on the web visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAJE-FiHZ7LeUPQHYKR9J-FxP6%2BG5ZzD_a_RR8vOeOD%2B%2Bd7UCvw%40mail.gmail.com >> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAJE-FiHZ7LeUPQHYKR9J-FxP6%2BG5ZzD_a_RR8vOeOD%2B%2Bd7UCvw%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >> . >> > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAD_sJGCO1TN8mkNuMF7q2jdr%2BNYgAJ30mM8W-NqaHExEUAdAgw%40mail.gmail.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAD_sJGCO1TN8mkNuMF7q2jdr%2BNYgAJ30mM8W-NqaHExEUAdAgw%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. 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