Should NBC Continue to Program 10/9pm?

[retrothoughts]

Given that NBC's programming, on many nights, finishes third amongst the "original three" networks during the 10 pm Eastern-Pacific/9 pm Central-Mountain hour unless it's football, the Olympics, the Golden Globes, the Emmys [every few years] or maybe hockey's Stanley Cup, do you think the Peacock Network has some divine responsibility to continue carrying shows in that hour?

My thought is no. I think NBC should, other than for the events listed above, shut it down at 10/9 pm. It would save them millions of dollars and only serve to benefit their local stations with a one-hour late newscast afterwards. NBC can then carry Jay Leno, or whoever succeeds him on The Tonight Show at 11/10 pm weeknights, and SNL, which still gets more viewers than its primetime Saturday lineup when they have a fresh episode, would move up to 11/10 pm Saturdays.

 

[wrsg915fm]

I've wondered why NBC doesn't use its affliliation with USA Network to make it a 'farm system,' bringing promising shows up to the 'big leagues,' and reducing costs incurred by greenlighting so many of their dubious projects that start out at the Peacock.

 

[EJ204]

It's an intersting idea, to match the Fox network schedule, allowing NBC affiliates to put their local news at 10pm (9 Central and Mountain). But I doubt you'll see it happen anytime soon.

NBC might be third at 10pm most nights. But these things change over time. At one time, NBC had a ton of successful 10pm programs, all the Law & Order shows, E.R., etc. But primetime dramas are expensive and require a lot of creativity. NBC over-relied on aging 10pm dramas, even rolling out a fourth Law & Order show, Trial by Jury. (I thought it was a good program but the audience didn't.)

When those 10pm dramas aged out of existence, NBC tried the Primetime Leno experiment. They thought they could go cheap at 10pm based on Leno's 11:35 success. That was a big failure and NBC is still trying to come back from it.

But they didn't give up 10pm when Leno failed. After all, you're asking NBC to give up a third of its primetime hours and revenue. Even if they're behind CBS and ABC, they're not going to do that. The #3 10pm shows still make money. I'm sure NBC believes the CBS and ABC 10pm shows will get older and sink. And NBC will come up with a successful line up at 10, over time.

 

[BD Sullivan]

Back in the late 60's/early 70's, a number of ABC afilliates either didn't show the network's Friday night schedule or buried it on Sunday afternoons, since the ratings were abysmal and they could make more money showing their own stuff--primarily movies.

 

[therealjm12]

Many NBC affiliates are producing 10:00 news now for their subchannels or for FOX, CW, or MY stations in their markets. So they wouldn't want a 10:00 newscast.

 

[sfradio]

Its not really just NBC that is struggling at 10pm, pretty much every network is.

 

[arnoldevns]

Won't happen. Giving up that inventory to affiliates over a slump in the ratings in that slot would be suicidal. NBC still hasn't recovered from the Leno disaster. They have some shows that can do well ( Smash & Revolution) but they need The Voice as a lead in. It will take another few years for NBC to get enough shows in development to fix the mess Jeff Zucker made.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

Its not really just NBC that is struggling at 10pm, pretty much every network is.

This is an important point. Neilsen's numbers indicate that about 15% of TVs are viewing DVRed programs at 10pm ET, often from earlier that night. Throw in another healthy chunk who are watching the 10pm news on FOX or one of the netlets, and the potential audience for "ER" successful seems much smaller than it did in the 90s.

 

[BD Sullivan]

Its not really just NBC that is struggling at 10pm, pretty much every network is.

This is an important point. Neilsen's numbers indicate that about 15% of TVs are viewing DVRed programs at 10pm ET, often from earlier that night. Throw in another healthy chunk who are watching the 10pm news on FOX or one of the netlets, and the potential audience for "ER" successful seems much smaller than it did in the 90s.

Which is why the perennial "lowest World Series TV audience ever" story is kind of a joke. Virtually all the games are in the Top 10 in ratings (even on a "dead" night like Saturday), so advertisers are getting what they paid for. Of course, that would require some perspective, which is always in short supply.

 

[MarcB]

They need to just stop programming prime-time all together. The past 2 Sundays they ran reruns of Saturday Night Live in Primetime. Last night they ran a rerun of Saturday Night Live in Prime-time. Too many reruns.

 

[arnoldevns]

NBC needs better leadership. Where's the breakout show for them? What are they known for?

I mentioned two shows that had some potential (Smash and Revolution) but NBC seems intent on ruining both programs. The Voice and Sunday Night Football are the only shows that draw a reliably large audience. They used The Voice to push viewers to Smash and Revolution. Now they've brought Smash back and it's dying without the lead in. Revolution was put on a long hiatus in the middle of its first season. Even if it comes back with The Voice as a lead in a lot of viewers will have forgotten where they were when last we saw the show.

Fox debuted The Following with a promise at the outset that it will have 14 new episodes run 14 weeks in a row. This was a smart move to let viewers know that unlike most shows you'll be able to see it each week at the same time and for quite some time.

NBC doesn't have a show like that in the works. Instead we get repeats of SNL and lame shows like some Ninja Warrior show I saw on there the other night.

For goodness sake, they're owned by Comcast now. Isn't there something in the large catalog of Universal movies or Comcast networks that would be good to run on NBC??

 

[dave73]

Many NBC affiliates are producing 10:00 news now for their subchannels or for FOX, CW, or MY stations in their markets. So they wouldn't want a 10:00 newscast.

I only know of WSBT-TV South Bend, IN (CBS affiiliate) doing a 10pm ET news on 22.2 to compete with WSJV's Fox 28 news. At 11pm, WSBT-TV does an 11pm ET news on 22.1 to compete with WNDU's 11pm news, & that newscast is in HD, while the 10pm news is not, nor in widescreen. The only reason WSBT-TV can do a 10pm news, is because 22.2 is independent, while 22.1 is CBS, & must show network programming until 11pm ET. I don't know if WNDU (NBC) would want to do a 10pm news or not.

 

[MarcB]

I don't watch anything on NBC unless there's a Football Game I'm interested in. I used to be a fan of The Biggest Loser, but not any more. I also don't like NBC 30's Newscasts either. I only will say I give the local O&O NBC 30 props for blowing out their entire local and NBC line-up last Saturday the 9th for their non-stop coverage of the 2013 Blizzard.

 

[FreddyE1977]

Back in the late 60's/early 70's, a number of ABC afilliates either didn't show the network's Friday night schedule or buried it on Sunday afternoons, since the ratings were abysmal and they could make more money showing their own stuff--primarily movies.

I'm guessing the Brady Bunch/Partridge Family/Room 222/Odd Couple block put a stop to that.

 

[fybush]

They need to just stop programming prime-time all together. The past 2 Sundays they ran reruns of Saturday Night Live in Primetime. Last night they ran a rerun of Saturday Night Live in Prime-time. Too many reruns.

Those weren't SNL reruns. They were documentaries about SNL in the '70s, '80s and '90s (and pretty well-done ones, at that.)

 

[BD Sullivan]

Like most entities in their position, NBC got cocky when they were on top, pattingt themselves on the back and figuring they could plug any piece-of-crap show between two mega-hits and it would also become a hit. Then, when those mega-hits ended, they started failing and went cheap, thereby getting what they paid for.

In watching CBS over the last year, they seem to be getting very cocky with their list of #1's on the network, and generally telling everyone how great they are. They're good at reconfiguring procedural shows, or creating spinoffs from their hit shows (or retreads like the "new" Hawaii Five-O), while using producers like Chuck Lorre to crank out the same-type comedy shows. In short, they're the TV version of McDonald's--they make mountains of cash, but the product is derivative.

 

[Bob1370]

There's nothing to stop NBC from shifting its prime time programming back an hour, starting at 7 PM ET/6 PM CT and giving its affiliates both a head start against the syndicated stuff on other network affiliates and the other stations' late news. They could then start Leno at 11 ET and Jimmy Fallon at midnight.

The FCC simply says network affiliates can program entertainment fed from their principal networks three out of four nightly hours of prime time (7-11 PM ET/PT, 6-10 PM CT/MT) Monday through Saturday; it has never said which three of the four.

 

[nomadcowatbk]

They need to just stop programming prime-time all together. The past 2 Sundays they ran reruns of Saturday Night Live in Primetime. Last night they ran a rerun of Saturday Night Live in Prime-time. Too many reruns.

Those weren't SNL reruns. They were documentaries about SNL in the '70s, '80s and '90s (and pretty well-done ones, at that.)

but they're a few years old, they've just given up on Sunday nights after the end of Football season

 

[nomadcowatbk]

There's nothing to stop NBC from shifting its prime time programming back an hour, starting at 7 PM ET/6 PM CT and giving its affiliates both a head start against the syndicated stuff on other network affiliates and the other stations' late news. They could then start Leno at 11 ET and Jimmy Fallon at midnight.

The FCC simply says network affiliates can program entertainment fed from their principal networks three out of four nightly hours of prime time (7-11 PM ET/PT, 6-10 PM CT/MT) Monday through Saturday; it has never said which three of the four.

people might not be home in the central time zone at 6PM

 

[Joe_Capitano]

There's nothing to stop NBC from shifting its prime time programming back an hour, starting at 7 PM ET/6 PM CT ...

The FCC simply says network affiliates can program entertainment fed from their principal networks three out of four nightly hours of prime time ... it has never said which three of the four.

Stations giving up 7/6 PM is not a viable option. In my market - Seattle/Tacoma/Everett, KING/5 has always schedued at least one half-hour between 7-8 PM with locally-produced content as far as I can remember. The incumbent, "Evening Magazine" has been around for over 25 years.

NBC will get that hour over "KING Mike's" dead body. I imagine any other NBC affiliate with a strong local program (or newscast in the midwest or Rockies) in that hour would feel the same way.

Then there's the Scripps stations, which dropped WOF & J! in favor of company-produced content. The ratings aren't as large, but then they don't have to bear the hefty cost of the top-rated syndies. From what I've seen, they're not losing their shirts.

And, don't forget. Stations don't get paid by the networks anymore. It's the other way around, And with regard to those "Retransmission Consent" dollars. the Peacock sits on about half of it. For that money the stations expect a lot from their network, including their sacred turf. Since they have to pay for it, I'd say it's more likely a station would drop network product if it meant more revenue in their pockets. That said, I expect NBC won't give up any of its sacred primetime willingly.

people might not be home in the central time zone at 6PM.

...and if they are home, you know quite a number still switch off the set over dinner.