NBC Considering Giving 10 p.m. Back to Affiliates

[Mark Jeffries]

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.

[Kevin M.]

NBC… taking a bad idea and making it worse! 

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Kevin M. (RPCV)

[Brad Beam]

“More local ad revenue? Yes, please!”

The question becomes, do the local My-CW-Fox newscasts powered by NBC at 10 shift to 11 or get simulcast?

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On Aug 26, 2022, at 16:16, Kevin M. <drunkba...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[PGage]

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. 

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[Mark Jeffries]

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
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[Jim Ellwanger]

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.

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[Tom Wolper]

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.

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[Adam Bowie]

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

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[PGage]

I don’t disagree with you; giving up on 10:00 pm would be a public admission that the days of broadcast television being the primary mass media in the US are over. I’m just saying that, even so, it would not be a worse move than programming the Jay Leno show every weeknight at 10:00 pm.

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[Mark Jeffries]

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
spotl...@gmail.com

Virus-free.www.avast.com

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[Brad Beam]

On the flip side, Fox in its 36 years has never decided to advance the proverbial ball past the 10/9 Central line. (And yes, by this point, it would take a lot of concessions to have their affiliates give back the hour.)

[Jim Ellwanger]

For a few years in the late 1980s/early 1990s, Fox did have Sunday night programming all the way from 7:00 to 11:00 Eastern. ("Married... With Children," for example, had a couple of stints at 10:00.)

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[ko...@frontiernet.net]

Fox built up to full prime time at one point after they started but gave the 10 pm weekday hour back to affiliates in exchange for the 11 pm weekday hour for Chevy Chase’s show


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[PGage]

That closes the circle, as the 11:00 pm Chevy Chase Show was about as bad an idea as the 10:00 Jay Leno show.

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[Brad Beam]

Reopening the circle:

While the Hearst CEO "expect[s]" ABC and CBS would follow NBC's proposed decommissioning of the 10:00 (ET/PT) hour, the CBS boss pulls a Corso and says "Not so fast, my friend."
https://deadline.com/2022/10/goodbye-10-pm-hour-network-primetime-cbs-abc-nbc-local-stations-1235149601/