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nbc's woeful february sweeps ratings

M

milwaukee_dave

Many of you have probably read NBC will be finishing fifth among the broadcasters as the books are closed on February sweeps. The designation is the second of not-good historical records for the peacock network. (The other, naturally, being the 0.9 18-49 rating for the debut of the now-canceled drama, "Do No Harm.")

Here's an insightful piece from the New York Times' Bill Carter on NBC's absolute implosion since 2012 gave way to 2013. The big takeaway, from my perspective: The broadcaster's highest-rated series this past month was "Saturday Night Live." The two originals that aired each notched 2.3 18-49 ratings. The significance, of course, is "SNL" airs late night. It topped every single show NBC aired in primetime!

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/25/b...-from-first-to-worst.html?ref=television&_r=0
 
NBC is repeating same mistake with Revolution it made with The Event two years before: Giving a new show that was a modest-to-middling hit in the fall a hiatus-then-return that's sooooo long, people are bound to forget about it.

Even assuming the amount of time need to produce new episodes...how does Kabletown not have re-runs of the show on now? I'd have plugged them in for that Thursdays as soon as Do No Harm tanked. Since they're gonna lose to Elementary and Scandal at that timeslot anyway, better to prime the promotional pump for Revolution's new episode return on March 25th.
 
Nate Wesley said:
NBC is repeating same mistake with Revolution it made with The Event two years before: Giving a new show that was a modest-to-middling hit in the fall a hiatus-then-return that's sooooo long, people are bound to forget about it.

Even assuming the amount of time need to produce new episodes...how does Kabletown not have re-runs of the show on now? I'd have plugged them in for that Thursdays as soon as Do No Harm tanked. Since they're gonna lose to Elementary and Scandal at that timeslot anyway, better to prime the promotional pump for Revolution's new episode return on March 25th.
Click to expand...

The fact that they're paying $4 million per episode for a middling show like "Smash" is an example of how incompetent NBC execs are. "Breaking Bad" (yes, I know it's cable) reportedly "only" costs $3 million per show, and there's little comparison in quality, genres notwithstanding, between those two shows.

As noted above, this strategy of breaking up a new show into two "seasons" is an absurd, and often costly (in terms of ratings) strategy. They'd be better off going the Cable route and showing perhaps 18 episodes of a show uninterrupted from September to January, then filling the schedule until May with another batch. Yes, I'm sure that would be more costly, but given the fact that networks already fill months like December and March with reruns, it might get more viewers to test these shows. God knows that what they're doing now isn't working.
 
Hey, NBC - how does it feel to be Dumont? ;D
 
BD Sullivan said:
The fact that they're paying $4 million per episode for a middling show like "Smash" is an example of how incompetent NBC execs are. "Breaking Bad" (yes, I know it's cable) reportedly "only" costs $3 million per show, and there's little comparison in quality, genres notwithstanding, between those two shows.
Click to expand...
I don't care for Smash myself, but then again Breaking Bad has both the advantages of 'wider creative license' (re: sex/drugs/murder/nasty) and trickle down from cable subscription and DVD monies. Also, Smash has to cast wide enough in audience to keep viewers watching the 11/10 PM local news.

BD Sullivan said:
As noted above, this strategy of breaking up a new show into two "seasons" is an absurd, and often costly (in terms of ratings) strategy. They'd be better off going the Cable route and showing perhaps 18 episodes of a show uninterrupted from September to January, then filling the schedule until May with another batch. Yes, I'm sure that would be more costly, but given the fact that networks already fill months like December and March with reruns, it might get more viewers to test these shows. God knows that what they're doing now isn't working.
Click to expand...

AMC did the 'broken season' well with The Walking Dead. The first eight episodes of the third season (16 in all) aired from October 14 to December 2, 2012. Enter an extended holiday/winter break (with Season 1-3? reruns still on in various spots for DVR viewers), and the show returned February 10th, a week after the Super Bowl.

Wikipedia says NBC greenlit a full season order (19 episodes) for Revolution back in October, and the first ten finished airing November 26th. Even assuming a needed break for production (it's a sci-fi show, after all)--they couldn't have an episode or two for fans before the return of Daylight Savings Time?
 
The difference is Breaking Bad and Walking Dead are excellent shows. There is nothing of quality on NBC that viewers are noticing. Especially with sitcoms.
 
benwolf said:
The difference is Breaking Bad and Walking Dead are excellent shows. There is nothing of quality on NBC that viewers are noticing. Especially with sitcoms.
Click to expand...

Which was my point. NBC is paying MORE for mediocrity (or worse). Maybe some execs ought to polish up their resumes.
 
Correct me if I'm wrong....but don't producers of shows almost always charge more for a program
they are selling to a major broadcast network than to a cable net? And aren't more of the cable
shows produced in lower cost locations away from Hollywood where perhaps they get a break on
the union labor rates?
 
There is another major story hidden in the February sweeps data:

In the 18-49 demo, Spanish-language Univision was ahead of both NBC and The CW during the just-concluded sweeps.

The truth is, a combination of a lack of high-appeal Spanish-language cable shows/networks, continuing erosion of English-language broadcast-network ratings, the fact that Univision prime-time (on weeknights) consists of Mexican novellas (most Hispanics in the U.S., other than those living along the East Coast, can trace their ancestry to Mexico), and the rapidly-growing Hispanic population (which has a younger average age than the nation's population as a whole) points to Univision continuing to gain viewers and becoming more competitive against English-language networks.

Univision has won most Friday nights this season among broadcast networks in both the 18-34 and 18-49 demos.

For the reasons listed above, Univision may win the full season among broadcast networks in the 18-34 demo within three years; and may well win a full season among the 18-49 demo with the next ten years, perhaps by the end of this decade.
 
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