Late last month, buried in an announcement from NBC Universal that the company would be laying off 700 workers across its television operations and shifting resources to online content, was this juicy nugget: NBC would be abandoning scripted entertainment in the first hour of primetime in favor of game shows and reality programming.
The announcement from programming head Jeff Zucker was greeted with a collective, “Whuh..?” from both journalists and the industry, and with good reason. This is a questionable business decision, and it does little to reverse the ratings slide that NBC has taken (from first to fourth) since Friends left the air. Plus, it seems unlikely to help NBC Universal’s bottom line. In addition to the job cuts and programming changes, the company is cutting $750 million in expenses. So let’s see, NBC Universal would have us believe that those meager moves will help plug the holes of a $14 billion a year corporation? Riiiiiiiiight.
Since it doesn’t make much fiscal sense, let’s look at the programming ramifications. Sure, game and reality shows are cheap to produce and when they hit big, as has been the case for NBC with Deal or No Deal, they are boons to the networks. But to completely turn over your first hour of primetime, the critical slot when you pull in all the eyeballs and set the tone for the rest of the night, to copycat game shows? NBC’s problem isn’t production costs, it’s ratings. The network’s been virtually unable to find any breakout hits (this season’s fantastic Heroes being the one exception, but its primary appeal to fan boy geeks like me keeps it from being bigger), and thus has no platform to promote other shows. NBC’s never going to find their behemoth on par with Grey’s Anatomy or Desperate Housewives by banking on Howie Mandel and the world’s most unfunny man, Bob Saget, host of Deal companion 1 vs. 100. Advertisers won’t throw money into that pit for very long, especially when the next big scripted show pops up on another network.
NBC’s new strategy also ignores the lessons of oversaturation that it should have learned from rival ABC, as well as its own recent programming moves. ABC also once had a hit game show, a little program called Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. It exploded in popularity, prompting ABC to air it four…nights…a…week. Viewers quickly lost interest and ABC spent the better part of the next five years trying desperately to make a comeback. NBC only has to look at The Apprentice for further warning signs. Remember Donald Trump’s sad horror show? NBC loved it so much that it plopped it into a plum Thursday night slot, TV’s most competitive night, where it promptly died as bored viewers tuned to CSI on CBS. I can relate. I’d rather watch gorey reenactments of bullets ripping through flesh than Trump’s comb-over ripping through good fashion sense any day.
What’s hilarious is that I don’t even think NBC itself is sold on its plan. My Name Is Earl and The Office already air in the early timeslot on Thursdays, and Zucker said they have no plans to move the shows. And do you really think if NBC found that elusive hit and they were convinced it would perform best in the early hour that they wouldn’t drop Howie in a heartbeat?
Don’t believe me? Well, then let’s make our way to the model with the suitcase and make a deal.
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