NBC exec: "This is just frustrating"

[TMC]

http://t.co/3QuV1MZa3S

Things are so bad at the Peacock that the highest-rated show this
month has been "Saturday Night Live." How did things fall so fast?

[Normal American]

They keep taking their orders from the White House. They will fail just
like Obama fails at everything. It only gets worse.

[W/Q]

Adding to how bad it's gotten for them, beside SNL doing the best and
Univision beating the network, is also that "no episode of any show on
NBC in February came within one million viewers of a show on PBS:
“Downton Abbey.”"

Now that's gotta be not only a kick in the head and gut for them, but
a direct impact to their balls. A public network's British import did
better than any NBC domestically-produced show?

Give me credit here, folks. This validates what I've been saying for
years. Rip that schedule to shreds and start fresh from scratch. Or
at least from scratch after you retain Sunday football, The Voice,
L&O: SVU and Chicago Fire, the only solid performers the network has
that deliver real viewers and not just niche ones. Niche is nothing
without real, and NBC is proving that in unmistakable glaring terms
right now in a way no other network has before, not FOX when it runs
dry of American Idol nor ABC during its abysmal seasons in the
mid-2000s.

[W/Q]

On Feb 25, 9:53 pm, Francis Urquhart
<francisurguh...@parlimnet.invalid.uk> wrote:

> On Mon, 25 Feb 2013 17:02:15 -0800, W/Q wrote:
> > years.  Rip that schedule to shreds and start fresh from scratch.  Or at
> > least from scratch after you retain Sunday football, The Voice, L&O: SVU
>

> No... those have got to go too!

In a perfect world, yeah. In the real world, NBC needs whatever large
volume of viewers it's still capable of capturing to keep the network
visible. Like it or not, those 3 shows plus Chicago Fire deliver the
largest audiences for the network in terms of total viewers. After
them, it's a steep drop to insignificance.

>
> > and Chicago Fire, the only solid performers the network has that deliver
>

> That one is correct, plus keep SMASH... these are the only 2 worthwhile
> programs NBC has.

Smash is already doomed, more than half its audience is gone and that
which remains is an embarrassingly low number for it to be kept and
expect any upsurging results from it. The show's already history,
done, trash can material.

[W/Q]

On Feb 26, 1:27 am, Francis Urquhart
<francisurguh...@parlimnet.invalid.uk> wrote:

> On Mon, 25 Feb 2013 19:34:37 -0800, W/Q wrote:
> > In a perfect world, yeah.  In the real world, NBC needs whatever large
> > volume of viewers it's still capable of capturing to keep the network
> > visible.  Like it or not, those 3 shows plus Chicago Fire deliver the
> > largest audiences for the network in terms of total viewers.  After
> > them, it's a steep drop to insignificance.
>

> You might think that.... but it is clear that... this is what pulled the
> rug out from NBC to start...
>
> Depending on three crapfests.....yeah...yeah... they are oh so golden
> ratings gooses..to the brain damaged sophmoronic idiots ... and look what
> happened...

>
> > Smash is already doomed, more than half its audience is gone and that
> > which remains is an embarrassingly low number for it to be kept and
> > expect any upsurging results from it.  The show's already history, done,
> > trash can material.
>

> Well first, you don't like the show (which you don't like any show),
> don't watch the show, so you have no interest in it surviving... I watch,
> I love, and I care about SMASH... even with the idol trash polluting and
> fucking it up! Hilty is extremely enjoyable, and I can only hope she
> tours for her CD some where close to my area. Thats a pretty strong
> endorsement for some one who doesn't listen to much modern music, and
> what I do 99.99% of the time has to come from outside the US, and in a
> vein similar to that of real music 50-60's...
>
> SMASH's problems:
>
> The show should never have been delayed till February....
> .
> Then it needs a lead in or it needs to be first.
> .
> And most importantly it can not be slotted at 2200 on TUES... CBS owns
> TUES, so that is not helping, in the least.
>
> MON at 2100 WORKS for me.. there is NOTHING between Bones at 2000 and
> Castle at 2200... PERFECT SLOT....if I am watching semi Live.. ie: PVR
> delayed to skip commercials.
>
> If SMASH goes away, and Grimm is all but toasted.. then Chicago Fire will
> be the LONE show, and at that point it will be playback only. Right now
> it has a chance of getting the semi live viewing over Nashville..but with
> one show on a network and options available on that slot.. catch you
> later NBC..

Well, I don't watch or like any NBC show so I'm not really playing any
favorites as to what should be kept. It's all strictly by the numbers
that I'm going by and not the demo numbers either, since even with
those, NBC has nothing to be proud as a peacock over. Smash fizzled
out early in its first season and clearly was riding on The Voice's
wave. On its own its dead meat and it's proving it now. Musical
dramas never work on prime-time TV. It's not working for Nashville,
it didn't work for Viva Laughlin, it didn't work for Cop Rock, it
didn't work for Hull High, it didn't work for Seven Brides for Seven
Brothers and didn't work for That's Life, and whatever other forgotten
ones it didn't work for. Only Fame had some ... fame. But it mostly
limped along for the season and a half it was on NBC opposed Magnum
PI.


>
> Considering your "schedule" for NBC 2013-2014.. NBC will go out of
> business quicker on that schedule than continuing with the current one
> and limping around like some zombie...

I guess you're forgetting or probably don't remember what NBC did back
in 1982-85 to climb out of its prolonged ratings cellar back then.
Coming in third and continually sinking just about every season since
1975, it finally took a turnaround when the network went ballistic
with new programming, airing 10 new shows in the fall of '82 and 9 in
'83 and '84 each. Add the half dozen or more during the winter and
spring periods, with virtually all of them being scripted shows, and
bingo! Formula for success realized by 1985 as 16 out of 18 returning
shows were those spawned within the '82-'85 seasons, to which it
needed to add only 6 new shows because their schedule had become that
successful. Point is that you don't find hits quickly by slotting
only 5 or 6 scripted new shows in the fall and then 3 or 4 new shows
the rest of the season and round them all out with a dozen new reality
shows. That's what's been NBC's problem for the last five years in
particular and this is the result they've now ended up with, 5th
place. Bringing back old shows that have been on longer than they
should've and that are barely holding on to survivable numbers of
viewers certainly guarantees even worse ratings for the network next
season through audience attrition alone. The network would be much
better off with at least a dozen new shows, which is what it really
needs, and score just a 4 rating with each of them than returning
their aging lot and score only a 2 rating with them. And the chances
of finding 2, 3 and even 4 new hits, even without lead-in support, out
of a dozen are a hell of a lot better than out 5 or 6 new shows, when
we've already seen how many fall hits NBC has produced in the last 5
years with just 5 or 6 new fall shows, about one each season, if even
one. You can't rebuild a schedule quickly that way. Even putting on
a mediocre new show that might pull in a 2.5 rating would be better
than keeping a decrepit old one for another year that's only getting a
2 rating. It's all about increasing the numbers whichever way you
can, not relying on sinking numbers that are guaranteed to kill you
more.


>
> NBC is close to becoming the first casualty in the death of OTA.
>
> --
> Majority Whip - rec.arts.tv
> Keeping the back benchers of the group in line!

[W/Q]

On Feb 26, 12:18 pm, Francis Urquhart
<francisurguh...@parlimnet.invalid.uk> wrote:

> On Tue, 26 Feb 2013 07:00:26 -0800, W/Q wrote:
> > Well, I don't watch or like any NBC show so I'm not really playing any
> > favorites as to what should be kept.
>

> Your at least honest, but your worse than I am I at least admit I like
> the shows I like...
>
> You don't like anything. So maybe its time to read books or something.

The Americans, Dexter, Burn Notice, Continuum... well, that's at
least 4 that I like, only 1 currently airing and none on NBC.

>
> > It's all strictly by the numbers
>

> Networks can not live by the numbers alone! YOU yourself have posted this
> and NBC is proof enough.

What, you mean they need cheeseburgers too? Never posted any comment
to that effect.

>
> > that I'm going by and not the demo numbers either,
>

> Well thats at least a positive move.....

>
> > since even with
> > those, NBC has nothing to be proud as a peacock over.  Smash fizzled out
> > early in its first season and clearly was riding on The Voice's wave.
>

> The voice (CRAP!) and SMASH go together about like an open flame and a
> gas tanker... plain and simple the dorqs watching the voice (CRAP!) have
> no clue who Rogers, Hammerstein, Gershwin, etc. are let alone the
> understanding of how a good bit of that has shaped their world.
>
> SMASH and 99% of the schedule do not mesh, but thats the problem all the
> way around.

>
> > On its own its dead meat and it's proving it now.  Musical dramas never
> > work on prime-time TV.  It's not working for Nashville,

> > for Viva Laughlin,
>
> Never heard of it.

It only lasted two episodes on CBS.

>
> >it didn't work for Cop Rock, it didn't work for
>

> Thats a totally different pile of feces than SMASH or Nashville.
>
> > Hull
> > High,
>
> Never heard of it.

Same time as Cop Rock.

>
> >it didn't work for Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
>

> If your talking about the 1954 film... your so wrong, SOOO WRONG

It failed as a series. Not wrong at all.

>
> Nominated for best picture, didn't win.. yeah you can save that
> argument.. the best candidate doesn't always win..it got nominated as it
> "worked"...Brando and On the Waterfront won.. meh.. Caine Mutiny would
> have been a better winner... but.. I am bigger Bogart fan than Brando..
> but 7Bf7B is DEFINITELY A SUCCESSFUL FILM and stage production. Period.
>
> The movie was the 5th most popular film at the British box office in 1955.
> [4]
> Seven Brides for Seven Brothers came in third in a BBC Radio 2 listener
> poll of the UK's "Number One Essential Musicals"[5] and was listed as
> number eight in the "Top 10 MGM musicals" in the book Top 10 of Film by
> Russell Ash.
> In 2004, this film was selected for preservation in the United States
> National Film Registry as being deemed "culturally, historically, or
> aesthetically significant."
> In 2006, the film was ranked #21 on the American Film Institute's list of
> best musicals.
> In 2008, the film was ranked number 464 in Empire magazine's list of the
> 500 greatest films of all time

>
> > for That's Life, and whatever other forgotten ones it didn't work for.
>

> yeah forgotten as I've never heard of it. The only thing I know titled
> that is a Sinatra song from '66, and his hit is the cover version.

The show aired in '68.

>
> > Only Fame had some ... fame.  But it mostly limped along for the season
> > and a half it was on NBC opposed Magnum PI.
>

> Oh..OK.. now I know you drank the Flavorade.. Fame limped along and
> didn't work... OK... riiigght.. Fame is probably one of the best and most
> successful of the genre, even if it is about nycesspool.

Ratings-wise, it stank, but NBC hung in with it hoping against hope
that it would turn into another Hill Street Blues or even St.
Elsewhere.

>
> > I guess you're forgetting or probably don't remember what NBC did back
> > in 1982-85 to climb out of its prolonged ratings cellar back then.
> > Coming in third and continually sinking just about every season since
> > 1975, it finally took a turnaround when the network went ballistic with
> > new programming, airing 10 new shows in the fall of '82 and 9 in '83 and

> >...........

> > whichever way you can, not relying on sinking numbers that are
> > guaranteed to kill you more.
>

> That may have worked with the shows they chose to air...so we throw out
> everything on the schedule and replace it all... well you have to replace
> it with something viewers want to watch...
>
> Well NONE OF THE PILOTS I've seen attributed to NBC at least making a
> pilot is anything I want to watch... and considering they continue to go
> down the rabbit hole with crap like Mockingbird Lane, 1600 Penn...Do No
> Harm... they should keep SMASH!

That's a big problem that needs to be overcome at the network, having
somebody there who knows what makes for a watchworthy show. In the
80s Brandon Tartikoff had the magic touch which worked for the network
until he lost the touch once the schedule became too successful. His
successor Warren Littlefield was merely an adept maintenance guy,
keeping the successful schedule successful without really creating any
new vibe to it himself.

>
> So where are all these hits in the pilots that are going to have me tune
> in to NBC? ?

While some may sound great or have detectable potential, it's all a
crapshoot at this point as to which ones will be worth watching and
which'll be junk. I don't think I can point to any surefire winners
at this stage, but my mock NBC fall sked I posted a while back
outlined which 13 of the 27 ordered pilots I think should be picked,
simply based on perceived potential. What I left out was clearly the
real junk pile of the lot. There were also at least a half dozen from
the proposed list of shows that still haven't been ordered to pilot or
may've been scrapped altogether that I thought should be considered
more seriously and those I picked as mid-season replacements. In all,
I had 20 new shows lined up for the whole of next season, out of which
I'm sure at least a half-dozen would be successful enough to return in
the fall of 2014, which is at least 5 more than the network would have
if it stuck to its status quo approach of adding only 5-6 new shows in
the fall and 3-4 the rest of the season.

>
> At the rate they are going Chicago Fire will be the only thing left, and
> thats pretty bad to see that your down with fox and only worthy of
> putting on ONE show worthy of watching.
>
> NBC will not be around by 2014 to worry about it either by their own
> demise or commiecrap's cut it up and split it apart like another post
> suggested.

[Vocalize]

On 2/25/13 4:52 PM, in article kgh10v$mp4$3...@wieslauf.sub.de, "Normal

It's fun making stuff up on the internet, isn't it, Norm?
This rote pettiness nonsense is getting pretty tired. Time to find another
hobby.

[Anonymous]

If he'd written "Hollywoodism," that would've made a lot more sense.

The continuous stream of propagandist dreck on network television has
spewed over to cable. There are still some really good series on
cable, but they are getting quite rare these days. When arguably the
most entertaining series that also plays well in reruns is Pawn Stars,
it does make one wonder, what happened to quality television series?

Perhaps cable and network television scripted series creators could
get a clue that government propaganda doesn't need to be so overt and
gratuitous in their productions. I wonder how many subliminals they
are using to reinforce their amateur-hour brainwashing tactics? They
need better writers. Apparently, good help is hard to find.

--
Bub