NBC Cancels "Rock Center"

[PTBoardOp94]

NBC has said that "Rock Center with Brian Williams" will not be on the fall schedule for the network. This is not really surprising.

http://www.thewrap.com/tv/article/nbc-cancels-rock-center-brian-williams-90856

I can't imagine that NBC will keep their large correspondent team around. Ted Koppel will probably go back to retirement, Meredith Viera may retire as well, and Harry Smith might look elsewhere. PBS NewsHour?

 

[FredLeonard]

Given NBC's track record for picking losers, just wait until there's a sudden hole in the fall schedule that needs to be filled quickly and cheaply. Rock Center will be back. They are probably still producing pieces for just in case. They may come back with a new name, a new set and a tweaked format. But NBC has been trotting out attempts to clone 60 Minutes since 60 minutes launched.

 

[crainbebo]

Rock Center has been on every day of the week, flip flopping between every weekday (Friday, then Tuesday, then Wednesday, then Friday) for months!

-crainbebo

 

[Yeziknoradio]

Given NBC's track record for picking losers, just wait until there's a sudden hole in the fall schedule that needs to be filled quickly and cheaply.  Rock Center will be back.  They are probably still producing pieces for just in case.  They may come back with a new name, a new set and a tweaked format.  But NBC has been trotting out attempts to clone 60 Minutes since 60 minutes launched.

Quickly and cheaply? I doubt they'll restore the Record.
More like they'll spin the wheel of SNL stars and give someone at random over there an hour long talk show or entertainment hour.
That can be done on the cheap.
Or better yet, before they can declare poor ratings during that hour, they'll quite literally rotate hosts every week or two. Not a bad idea. Perhaps the Colin Quinn show from back in the day would have had a chance if they rotated hosts back then...
(but I'm just guessing...)

 

[FredLeonard]

I suppose they could always move Leno back to prime time to fill a hole.

Better yet, run old Johnny Carson tapes.

Anyone who has stayed home waiting for a Comcast service rep who never showed, or one who did show and didn't fix the problem, may take some schadenfreude from NBC's problems.

NBC's corporate motto: "Screwing up a good thing since 1947."

NBC has had maybe two competent executives in its history:
Pat Weaver (Sigourney's dad) - they fired him but he gave them the only shows which continue to make money for the network.
Grant Tinker (Mar's husband) - he brought NBC back from the dead (for a while)

 

[cd637299]

I have a serious question....

Pretending for a minute that cable TV channels/Fox/Univision are not a factor (I know, I know)----is NBC better, worse, or similar, to the 1978-80 debacle of theirs (Supertrain, Pink Lady, "N-B-See Us," etc.), ratings-wise?

cd

 

[FredLeonard]

I have a serious question....

Pretending for a minute that cable TV channels/Fox/Univision are not a factor (I know, I know)----is NBC better, worse, or similar, to the 1978-80 debacle of theirs (Supertrain, Pink Lady, "N-B-See Us," etc.), ratings-wise?

cd

Ah, yes. The Fred Silverman era. The correct answer is (c): "Similar.

The funny thing, since you mention cable channels, is NBC owns USA Network and USA has had some excellent and successful scripted shows over the last few years. Arguably, USA succeeds where NBC fails. Burn Notice, Royal Pains, White Collar (among others). Good shows produced at a relatively low cost. Interesting characters and good writing. Maybe USA should run NBC.


Too bad NBC didn't cancel Morning Joe, which is completely out of place on MSNBC. Meanwhile MSNBC seems to do whatever it can to drive away successful talent.

 

[rnigma1]

NBC has had maybe two competent executives in its history:
Pat Weaver (Sigourney's dad) - they fired him but he gave them the only shows which continue to make money for the network.
Grant Tinker (Mar's husband) - he brought NBC back from the dead (for a while)

RCA dictator "General" David Sarnoff ousted Weaver so he could put his son Bobby in the NBC president's chair. Sarnoff also screwed over Philo Farnsworth, and drove FM inventor Edwin Armstrong to suicide.

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

I am very surprised.

I thought it might stay on Friday nights since it would probably have a chance at making more profit in that slot than a scripted show.

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if come Fall, CBS is the only network broadcasting first-run scripted programming on Friday nights with The CW and Fox broadcasting a mix of reality and reruns; while ABC and NBC air a mix of reality and newsmagazine shows.

 

[BD Sullivan]

I have a serious question....

Pretending for a minute that cable TV channels/Fox/Univision are not a factor (I know, I know)----is NBC better, worse, or similar, to the 1978-80 debacle of theirs (Supertrain, Pink Lady, "N-B-See Us," etc.), ratings-wise?

cd

Ah, yes. The Fred Silverman era. The correct answer is (c): "Similar.

The funny thing, since you mention cable channels, is NBC owns USA Network and USA has had some excellent and successful scripted shows over the last few years. Arguably, USA succeeds where NBC fails. Burn Notice, Royal Pains, White Collar (among others). Good shows produced at a relatively low cost. Interesting characters and good writing. Maybe USA should run NBC.


Too bad NBC didn't cancel Morning Joe, which is completely out of place on MSNBC. Meanwhile MSNBC seems to do whatever it can to drive away successful talent.

It was mentioned in another thread that maybe NBC might be more successful if they didn't keep putting their new serialized dramas on hiatus for months at a time. By the time the new show returns, viewers have moved on and the show gets dumped.

 

[Corky Marlowe]

NBC has had maybe two competent executives in its history:
Pat Weaver (Sigourney's dad) - they fired him but he gave them the only shows which continue to make money for the network.
Grant Tinker (Mar's husband) - he brought NBC back from the dead (for a while)

Brandon Tartikoff, too.

 

[Morgan Wick]

I am very surprised.

I thought it might stay on Friday nights since it would probably have a chance at making more profit in that slot than a scripted show.

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if come Fall, CBS is the only network broadcasting first-run scripted programming on Friday nights with The CW and Fox broadcasting a mix of reality and reruns; while ABC and NBC air a mix of reality and newsmagazine shows.

I've wondered, with ABC and Fox going with sports-heavy Saturdays in recent years, why no broadcast network has colonized Fridays for sports.

 

[cd637299]

I am very surprised.

I thought it might stay on Friday nights since it would probably have a chance at making more profit in that slot than a scripted show.

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if come Fall, CBS is the only network broadcasting first-run scripted programming on Friday nights with The CW and Fox broadcasting a mix of reality and reruns; while ABC and NBC air a mix of reality and newsmagazine shows.

I've wondered, with ABC and Fox going with sports-heavy Saturdays in recent years, why no broadcast network has colonized Fridays for sports.

Two hours of Roller Derby on Friday nights might get me to watch MyNet.....

cd

 

[johnnya2k6]

NBC has had maybe two competent executives in its history:
Pat Weaver (Sigourney's dad) - they fired him but he gave them the only shows which continue to make money for the network.
Grant Tinker (Mar's husband) - he brought NBC back from the dead (for a while)

Brandon Tartikoff, too.

And Warren Littlefield; had he not greenlit "Friends", Jennifer Aniston would still be slaving away as a telemarketer.

On the daytime side, there was the (in)competent Lin Bolen, whose ultimatum was to make NBC's game shows feel like a nightclub and its hosts dressed like pimps. "Jeopardy!" (with original host Art Fleming) didn't fit into her criteria, so in its place: WHEEL...OF...FORTUNE!!!

 

[FredLeonard]

And Warren Littlefield; had he not greenlit "Friends", Jennifer Aniston would still be slaving away as a telemarketer.

On the daytime side, there was the (in)competent Lin Bolen, whose ultimatum was to make NBC's game shows feel like a nightclub and its hosts dressed like pimps. "Jeopardy!" (with original host Art Fleming) didn't fit into her criteria, so in its place: WHEEL...OF...FORTUNE!!!

Lin Bolen was the inspiration for Diana Christensen, the programming executive played by Faye Dunaway in the movie "Network."

She fired several traditional hosts like Fleming in favor of "young hunks" (then including Alex Trebek) but when she started her own game show production company, the host she hired was Allen Ludden.

NBC's other dumb moves include:

Cancelling Star Trek (demos to die for)

Cancelling Law & Order when basically they had nothing else to replace it.

Putting Jay Leno on for an hour each night in prime time to save money.

In one swoop losing and alienating most of the top stars in radio to CBS: Jack Benny, Burns and Allen, Amos n' Andy, Edgar Bergen, Red Skelton, Kate Smith ... These stars became the basis for CBS' ability to dominate network television in the ratings for its first quarter century. General Sarnoff had an indifferent attitude toward talent. He thought people listened to NBC because it was NBC; stars and personalities didn't matter. So, most of the network's top talent left for CBS because Bill Paley made them feel appreciated and offered each a much better deal.

General Sarnoff was actually a general. Without prior military experience, he wheedled himself a spot on Eisenhower's communication staff in London. So did CBS head William Paley but he was only a colonel.

 

[cd637299]

I cannot verify this, but it was also possible that Lin Bolen changed the format of "Jackpot" w/ Geoff Edwards, from the cool "riddle" format to questions more suited to "Hollywood Squares," which hurried "Jackpot" to the exit door.

Thankfully, when the show returned on USA (taped in Canada with Mike Darrow), it returned to the riddles......a few years later, it returned in syndication, with Edwards again, and riddles.

If this can be disputed, by all means, correct me. I don't want to cast the guilty-finger on her yet as far as "Jackpot", although IMO she really did do things to the daytime shows (and hosts' styles) that were questionable.

Now back to topic....what would she have done with "Rock Center"?

cd

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

Cancelling Star Trek (demos to die for)

Cancelling Law & Order when basically they had nothing else to replace it.

Putting Jay Leno on for an hour each night in prime time to save money.

In the late 1960's, few advertisers, producers, and networks were interested in demographics. They only wanted "how many" and not "who".

It was in the early 1970's that networks and advertisers began really caring about demographics.

Had this trend begun in 1965 instead of the early 1970's, the original "Star Trek" would have lasted longer, and probably would have been in a "good" midweek timeslot (not on Fridays at 8:30 Eastern/Pacific and certainly not on Fridays at 10 Eastern/Pacific).

The original "Law and Order" probably had another year or two (or more; there could always be cast changes with such changes being treated in the plotlines of the show as personnel retiring, moving, transferred, etc.).

And Jay Leno in prime time wasn't a bad idea. The show NBC put him in was. I'm still convinced that if Leno had been given a traditional-format, big-budget hour-long once-a-week comedy/variety show in 2009, it would have been NBC's biggest hit of the 2009/2010 prime-time TV season and probably would still be among TV's top-rated shows.

 

[MarcB]

Another dumb move was NBC canceling Baywatch.

 

[FredLeonard]

There hasn't been a successful comedy/variety show since Carol Burnett, though several otherwise talented people have tried. And Leno ain't no Carol Burnett. He's certainly no Harvey Korman.

 

[Morgan Wick]

And Jay Leno in prime time wasn't a bad idea. The show NBC put him in was. I'm still convinced that if Leno had been given a traditional-format, big-budget hour-long once-a-week comedy/variety show in 2009, it would have been NBC's biggest hit of the 2009/2010 prime-time TV season and probably would still be among TV's top-rated shows.

Yes, because it's still 1963 instead of 2013 and 1969 instead of 2009, and people are still interested in non-SNL variety shows just because you are. I still think the real problem with Leno in primetime was that they didn't really believe in it; if they had, they would have put him at 10:35 and moved local news to 10.