- Kathy Bates/David Kelley patent lawyer dramedy Harry's Law replaces Chase at 10 PM Monday, where it will promptly die against Castle and Hawaii Five-0. More disenchantingly, Parenthood gets sent into that slot in March, likely to be burned off.
- Even though Biggest Loser has kind of self-destructed in the ratings this year and has major labor issues, it stays at two hours, with Law and Order: LA getting the 10 PM slot. (Why not cut Loser to an hour and stick Parenthood at 9?)
- Even though NBC has consistently won Sundays this fall with football, they seem committed to squandering that audience in the spring, with a lineup of Dateline, Marriage Ref, and two hours of Celebrity Apprentice. (Though they're going to use an early January Sunday to launch superhero drama The Cape, which will fill for The Event on Monday nights in January.)
- 30 Rock gets an early pickup for the 2011-2012 season.
Monday, November 15, 2010
JUST WAIT TILL COMCAST GETS ITS HANDS ON IT: The biggest news in NBC's mid-season schedule to most folks is that Parks and Rec is returning after The Office in January. However, there are a bunch of other intriguing moves:
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Does the superhero's superpower have anything to do with the Cape? Can he shuck oysters quickly? Locate quahogs in a marsh? Get invited to P-town's finest tea dances?
ReplyDeleteWhy not cut Loser to an hour and stick Parenthood at 9? Because more people will watch that 2nd hour of Loser than an hour of original programing, at least at the caliber of Parenthood. Therefore, the network can make more money (that as a private enterprise it's incented to do) by charging higher ad rates for said improved viewership. And...the 2nd hour of Loser is far, far cheaper to produce than an hour of Parenthood. More revenue plus improved margins...capitalism at its finest.
ReplyDeleteThey say he can get over the Bourne Bridge in 5 minutes on a Saturday morning in August.
ReplyDeleteDidn't Marriage Ref do really well in the ratings? I never watched and didn't know anybody that watched, but I got the sense that it was popular among the people who watch a lot of things that I don't watch, like CSI and 2 1/2 Men.
ReplyDeleteThe second hour of Loser is even cheaper to produce than the first hour of Loser. Other than the marginal increase in what you have to pay editors to edit a two-hour show (which, for all I know, may be nothing) from the same amount of footage, the second hour is practically free once you've sunk in the cost of the first hour. There now is a limit to how much you can trade ratings for thrift-based profit (the affiliate rebellion over the Leno experiment set the bar), but as long as the affiliates aren't grousing, I'm with KRovinsky.
ReplyDeleteYes, but what does freshman Congressman Steve Austin have to say about it? (Politics rule aside, he had to have won, right?)
ReplyDeleteWhy yes, I will be watching the patent lawyer show. Why do you ask?
ReplyDelete(And hooray for the return of Ron Effing Swanson!)
it doesn't bode well for nbc's pipeline that they're moving chase and relaunching the event instead of ditching them for mid-season replacements. i certainly didn't think chuck would ever get a fifth season, but right now it seems to be looking better and better.
ReplyDeleteI guess I read that it debuted in first place, snorted condescendingly, and never paid attention again.
ReplyDeleteIs that true of all reality and indefinitely? I wonder what the marginal cost is on a second hour of, say, Survivor. What about the third hour? At what point do you have to expand the underlying reality game or filming or whatever to get more footage?
ReplyDeleteIn other NBC programming news: Sing-Off is back! There are certain members of the ALOTT5MA community who will join me in rejoicing this.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if it's true for everything, but the 2nd hour of Biggest Loser is really just weighing people, and other people making faces.
ReplyDeleteAnd Ben Folds is back. Phew.
ReplyDeleteIt would depend on how you did it, of course. If you expanded, say, TAR to two hours, you could do it two ways (or a combination of both) -- either add stuff to each leg (distance, tasks, time, etc.) or leave the format the same and just use more of the footage. The former could raise costs because you'd have to pay for everything you added (locations, production, crew for a 78-day shoot rather than a 39-day shoot). But if you were going to leave TAR as a 39-day race around the world, it's not like you could really add all that much. You're already filming the racers every waking hour. It's not like you're going to a 48-hour day (although if you flew the right way around the world, I suppose you could).
ReplyDeleteI just want to know the recipe for Harry Slaw. Or maybe I don't...
ReplyDeleteit's me dan!
ReplyDeletei'm rejoicing!
let's just hope the pussycat doll on the panel gets laryngitis early in the run
since i've moved to the holler, any decent size city that a decent live act would come through is at least 2 hours away
so this will have to be how i get my ben folds fix
it's been rough since ben is touring w/nick hornby and folks have been telling me how great the shows have been
You could make eat/sleep/mingle time more of a part of the narrative.
ReplyDelete(Also, does money still count this year? Barely addressed other than last week's Russian taxis.)
Why FOX didn't scoop up him as an American Idol judge is beyond me. Technical music knowledge AND a hell of a songwriter with indie cred AND mainstream success on his resumé? Sounds like he's everything an Idol judge isn't.
ReplyDeleteI actually had you in mind as one of the certain members. There are only 21 days left till the premiere, can we get a countdown clock on the main page already?
ReplyDeleteGee, might I be one of the "certain members"?
ReplyDeleteI really didn't like the way they did the show last year, but if there's a cappella on my TV, it's a pretty sure bet I'll be watching.
I said the same thing when I saw the ad last night, Dan. I assume either (1) the Singoff had him locked up for future seasons, or (2) the Idol producers are idiots, or (3) the ever-popular both.
ReplyDelete