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Something we’ve discussed many times in the past is that although we (some of us) and Tumblr love (or loved) the shows on NBC’s Thursday night lineup, almost no one else even knows they exist and they don’t really make NBC any money and it’s kind of weird that they were ever able to be on NBC in the first place. Right? You remember that we’ve talked about it? You remember. It looks like NBC has finally caught onto this, announcing that they’re going to stop making shows for weirdos and start making shows for dummies. From Time:
This morning at the Beverly Hilton, NBC entertainment chief Robert Greenblatt spoke to introduce the network’s new fall schedule, with a message: NBC can no longer afford pride. Those sophisticated, risk-taking, grown-up comedies? Love ‘em! Not going to do ‘em so much anymore!
“We’re in a transition,” Greenblatt said. “We’re trying to broaden the audience.” And while he called the network’s Thursday roster–and Community, moving to Fridays, “great shows,” he frankly said: “We just can’t get the audience for them. They tend to be a little bit more narrow and more sophisticated than you want for a broad audience.”
C’est la vie. To everything turn, turn, turn. So it goes. You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes you just might find you get what you need on other channels and also the Internet and probably Netflix at some point. This is, I’m sure, not a big shock to anyone after seeing what was on deck for NBC during Upfronts Season, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to give you guys a chance to MOURN IT OUT! So. R.I.P. NBC weird comedy rock block. You will be missed, by some.
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Or to put it another way, NBC is going to stop taking risks that might result in brilliance and just make garbage that aims to siphon off CBS’s audience.
Or to put it another way, NBC wants to stay in business.
Hey, man. I just want people to try and make good shows. I don’t work for NBC, and I don’t give a care whether they make money. As a consumer, being pissed that they are basically giving up on ambitious programming is a very rational response.
Sometimes it sucks not being part of the lowest common denominator.
I find the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks, even in my case. I may eat at McDonalds more than once every month, but goddamnit at least I don’t think Big Bang Theory is good.
It’s a shame, for sure, but the way I see it, they didn’t say they’re TOTALLY getting rid of the good, unique shows. They’re just providing more of what the people want, so they can maybe make some money and continue to give us better shows at a slower rate. I have no problem with that.
P.S. I actually care whether NBC makes money because I sort of hate them after that odious deal with Comcast, but they make good shows. I’m very conflicted.
To be fair, I think we’re all basically putting in the same way.
R2 and I have a long, proud tradition of arguing against each other even though we’re both on the same side of a debate. It’s kind of our thing.
our DVRs in 2013 will be this:
“People wrote books and movies, movies that had stories so you cared whose ass it was and why it was farting, and I believe that time can come again!”
Guys. We need to talk about this picture:
Tell me about it, that monkey’s playing like a donkey.
jason jones, ken jeoung, and zach galifianakis were not available.
That’s not Ken Jeong?
uh oh hot dog!
RACIST FOODSTUFF!
I love Justin Kirk and that guy looks like the guy from Reaper, who is also great. But this show looks terrible. They all look terrible. They look FAKE they look so terrible.
But you know what isn’t terrible? A little NBC show called Grimm. You should watch it. Super entertaining.
I will never stop loving your Grimm plugs.
I’ve practically given up on TV anyway. It seems that the stuff I like gets canceled so quickly. On the plus side, I’ve been able to make a good dent on my reading bucket list.
The hell’s a reading bucket?
Do androids not read in buckets? Weird.
There are apparently enough different kinds of reading buckets that she is listing them. And also denting them for some reason???
Well the list of reading buckets is ON a bucket, natch.
It’s the list of books you read before your glasses get broken in a post apocalyptic Hellscape.
Maybe if anyone at NBC knew how to properly market their shows and advertise on the internet, they wouldn’t have to sell out.
Has anyone ever thought that instead of making all the shows crappy to appeal to dumb viewers, they should make them all awesome so that people are forced to watch shows that AREN’T lazy stereotype-traffickers?
All the marketing and advertising in the world don’t make a difference, because the good shows don’t appeal to everybody. Spending large amounts of time on the internet, it’s easy to forget that you’re surrounded by people with similar tastes, but there’s a whole world out there that disagrees with you. Judging by what you see on the internet, Community and Neutral Milk Hotel are the biggest things in the world. We all know this not to be the case.
NBC should just stop being a network and start being a cable channel. Apparently they can afford to have awesome shows without needing them to find shows that EVERYONE wants to watch. Because there are no shows that EVERYONE wants to watch. And why would anyone bother, when there are hundreds of channels, why would everybody agree to watch the same one at the same time anyway?
Nothing appeals to ‘everybody’. Heck, it would be hard to find something that appeals to a majority of people. You might get a sizeable chunk of the audience, but that’s going to be a matter of luck. And, shows that did become massive hits were often given more than a couple of seasons to build up an audience, and had advertisers, and didn’t just get thrown to the wolves by putting them against a show that does 4 times their rating and then get punished for not doing as well as the shows after it that do slightly better in the ratings despite having NO compeition in the same genre.
Marketing definitely makes a difference. Maybe not for every show or movie, but a lot of them…
When Southland was on NBC, I watched a couple episodes but never really got into it, and it then it was canceled after 6 episodes.
TNT brought it back, and through their frequent advertisements – which were very well done – I gave it another shot, and it has become one of my favorite shows.
Of course, the show has to be good enough to keep someone coming back for more episodes, but the marketing is what helps or hurts in the beginning.
Just because a show is directed towards a larger audience does not mean that show is bad.
this is just great cultural commentary.
Took me a minute… now I get it. Hahahah!
NBC, CANCEL THAT COMMENT IMMEDIATELY.
I know I’m going to get down voted for this, but I actually like Whitney.
The first couple of episodes were rough, but by the end of the season, it definitely improved. Enough so that I’m pretty happy that it’s coming back for a second season.
Is it the greatest show of all time? Absolutely not. Is it better than Parks and Rec? No. Is it pleasant to watch when you have about 20 minutes to relax and eat dinner, but don’t feel like watching another Seinfeld rerun? Yes.
I like Whitney standup. She seems a bit forced when acting on the show, but I still find her funny. The side characters have some pretty funny moments. Again, the show has it’s flaws, but it’s really not that bad.
i upvoted you because you should like what you like and be ok with it.
NBC announces “WIPE OUT BIG BROTHER GOT TALENT” hosted by Bristol Palin and that useless “style consultant” from the Queer Eye show!
Here’s the thing– The shows on NBC that I watch happen to air on Thursday nights and late on Saturday nights. I have no idea what NBC is doing with their remaining 164.5 hours of weekly broadcasting time, but that seems more than an ample amount for them to spoon-feed the lowest common denominator their dumbshit shows.
I’m totally with you on that. I get that you can’t experiment with all your programming, but is 2 hours a week really that risky? If the time slot is a problem, then exile it all to Friday night and the shows that mostly exist for the Hulu/DVR watching audience will still find them. Trying to say that 2 hours a week of weird, niche shows are killing your business sounds bizarre. What the heck is happening every other night? I don’t really know since I just watch those two hours every Thrusday, but I assume based on the network’s commercials that it’s full of lawyer doctor dramas and game shows where obese people date a celebrity through a singing contest. NBC is already appealing to the lowest common denominator every other night of the week and it’s not working for them there, either.
“The One Where the NBC Exec Admits He’s Been Crying Since 2004″