Saturday, November 13, 2010

FREE THE CITIZENS OF PAWNEE: Part of NBC's rationale for the "Leno at 10" experiment was research which said that viewers wanted to see more comedy at 10 PM. Recent launches indicate that this may be the case--light, jokey, character-driven procedurals like Castle, Hawaii Five-0, and The Mentalist are among the bigger hits to launch in 10 PM timeslots in recent years. That said EW is reporting that NBC is contemplating a 3 hour comedy block on Thursdays for the first time in years on Thursdays come Spring, with Parks and Recreation and new Olivia Munn series Perfect Couples joining the four shows already there, with 30 Rock and Outsourced moving to the 10 PM slot. I think there's a very real opportunity there--I find Mentalist to be a bore, and while Private Practice has been quite solid this year (KaDee Strickland has been particularly great with a very challenging plotline)--but both are pretty heavy, and I think something lighter could find an audience there.

10 comments:

  1. FWIW, I'd like to see 8 Perfect Couples, 8:30 Community (move it out of the way of Big Bang, and it does considerably better, witness the Halloween episode), 9 Office, 9:30 Parks and Rec (give it a chance out of the one legtimate hit).

    I expect we'll see 8 Community, 8:30 Parks and Rec (critical faves that have trouble finding an audience), 9 Office, 9:30 Perfect Couples (want to keep Munn and her geek cred away from Big Bang and try and use the final Carell episodes of The Office to launch a new series).

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  2. Paul Tabachneck5:46 PM

    It will make my Friday morning Hulu'ing bleed into my Friday afternoon Hulu'ing, but I'll allow it.

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  3. Cecilia7:43 AM

    Bringing back "Parks & Rec" AND moving "Outsourced" to past my bedtime?  I'll allow it.

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  4. Cecilia7:45 AM

    In case the point did not translate -- I can't stand "Outsourced" on its own and, on top of that, blame it for the lack of "Parks & Rec."  So this is as near a win-win for me as I can get (once I accept that "Outsourced" has not been canceled).

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  5. Lurker David5:11 PM

    I read Alan & Dan, & Linda Holmes, et al, but I still haven't heard a good thing about "Outsourced."  Does anyone like it?

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  6. Never watched it, but it gets better ratings than 30 Rock or Community, so it's either the strength of the lead-in (The Office) or the strength of the show.

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  7. Hannah Lee6:52 PM

    I've tried Outsourced a couple of times, but barely can make it through a whole episode (though, in fairness, that's true of The Office for me this season, too.)  IMO, the rating are a result of the timeslot not the show (Community and 30 Rock drew similar or better ratings when they followed The Office at 9:30)

    The cast is OK, but the tone and writing is amateurish and not very funny.  I don't think I laughed once.  If you've seen the commercials, you've seen the show.

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  8. Meghan7:54 PM

    Outsourced is awful.  I've seen most of the episodes only because I had all the other shows on and just didn't change the channel--and I haven't laughed once.  I'd be willing to bet that's the case for the majority of people who Nielson registers as watching it.

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  9. J. Bowman10:01 PM

    I look at Outsourced like I look at Glee - it makes me laugh every couple of minutes, but it's mainly on because there's nothing else on and I feel like having the TV on. The potential end of the deeply discomfiting Todd-Asha plotline is a step in the right direction, at least.

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  10. christy in nyc12:03 PM

    My husband likes Outsourced. He has pretty mainstream tastes when it comes to sitcoms. He also likes Two and a Half Men, Rules of Engagement, reruns of Everybody Loves Raymond, King of Queens, and the George Lopez sitcom. He's also Indian, born and raised, and doesn't seem offended by it. Cheesiness and stereotypes are a big part of Indian comedy, so maybe that's part of it. He does like pointing out inaccuracies, though.

    I think Two and a Half Men is a good comparison, really--in both cases the writing is much worse than the performances, and both wander along that line between vaguely offensive and acutely offensive.

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