By Jeff Rosz | May 17th, 2013  We are waiting on the overnights, but for those who cannot possibly wait to see how The Office finale failed to bring back all of its viewers…the program did over 5 million sets of eyes with a 2.9 in the 18-49 demo. This is the best performance in 16 months for the program which has been falling flat with viewers ever since the departure of Steve Carell and more so the conclusion of the will-they won’t-they Jim and Pam story arc. Even so, Michael Scott did make an appearance of sorts. Had he been all over the series ender, more might have returned, but it was more so a cameo with a “that’s what she said” joke. The real Michael Scott would have took the reigns of Dwight’s wedding and made it more about him in a grandiose manner.
Update: Viewers: 5.4 million, 18-49: 2.9 rating. In terms of the retrospective, that was 4.3 million viewers with a 2.0 18-49. These are not final numbers. Expect those to surface later in the day.
Update #2: Final numbers for The Office finale have 5.7 million tuning in and a 3.0 in the 18-49 demo.
By Jeff Rosz | May 16th, 2013  Well, that was fast. The Peacock is more than happy with making the ‘cycle off’ vacations of Christina Aguilera and Cee Lo Green on The Voice a yearly thing. News is breaking this Thursday that NBC has already locked down Shakira and Usher for the show’s Spring 2014 run with an announcement expected to come within the next few weeks. That said, we are now curious as to the constants on the panel and whether they might too be up from periodic displacement. Adam Levine and Blake Shelton have been on the program since the very beginning and the former at least does not entirely owe his career to the hit reality program.
By Jeff Rosz | May 15th, 2013  I wasted about 30 minutes of my day putting this together: a complete primetime lineup for broadcast television at the start of the Fall 2013 season. Missing is CW which I consider as negligible as a basic cable network. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | May 12th, 2013  Revolution has been removed from its warm lead-in The Voice as of next television season. That is the major headline tonight out of The Peacock’s reveal of their forward slate. A lot of people will be watching to see if viewership continues to stay in the 2.0 18-49 range without the network’s top program to help anchor it. Other than that, there are no surprises here even as the fall and midseason schedule appears to be completely redone outside of The Voice, Grimm, and Law & Order: SVU. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | May 12th, 2013  With one week left before the season finale of Saturday Night Live, Seth Meyers has inked a deal with NBC to become the next host of their Late Night program. The Weekend Update alum will become the fourth host in the program’s history, following David Letterman, Conan O’Brien, and Jimmy Fallon. Lorne Michaels produces the program, so it is no wonder that everyone except Letterman has had ties to SNL. Letterman was named to the gig after several years of subbing in for Johnny Carson over at The Tonight Show back when they did such a thing. Here is the press release.
NEW YORK – May 12, 2013 – NBC names the versatile Emmy-winning writer/performer Seth Meyers as the new host of “Late Night” when Jimmy Fallon moves to “The Tonight Show” in 2014. Lorne Michaels will executive produce “Late Night with Seth Meyers” and Michael Shoemaker will remain with the franchise as producer. “Late Night with Seth Meyers” will originate from 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | May 10th, 2013  It is a done deal. Despite terrible ratings, the word came down tonight that NBC and Sony came to terms, granting Community a fifth season. No word yet on The New Normal, but from what I heard this afternoon, their fates were tied together as Sony also produces the Ryan Murphy comedy. Friday’s confirmation comes courtesy Alison Brie who many also know for her recurring role as Pete’s wife on Mad Men.
Update: I guess The New Normal fell away in negotiations. That show has been cancelled.
By Jeff Rosz | May 10th, 2013  NBC remains in pickup mode after saying goodbye to 1600 Penn, Whitney, Deception, Guys with Kids, and Up All Night. The Peacock has rewarded pickups for the Chicago Fire spin-off Chicago PD, a reboot of the 1967 drama Ironside, and a comedy from Bill Lawrence called Undateable. This joins a prior order for J.J. Abrams’ Believe and a sixth season for Parks & Recreation. The surprise in all this though came in a late cancellation Friday as NBC has let go of the Matthew Perry-led comedy Go On which the network pushed all year long. After debuting to great ratings, viewership became sluggish as time went on.
Looking into other programming, Law & Order SVU will be back and two other comedies, The New Normal and Community, are expected to return as well. Those last two really do not have the ratings to stay on broadcast, but NBC desperately needs some filler programming so their renewals are contingent on an overall deal with Sony TV.
Update: Rock Center with Brian Williams has been axed as well. The magazine-formatted primetime news show had long struggled in the ratings although it was a cheaply-produced hour of filler programming, thus why it had legs for two seasons.
By Jeff Rosz | May 9th, 2013  No surprises here. The low-rated, yet reliable mockumentary-style sitcom Park & Recreation has received a sixth season renewal today as NBC prepares their slate for upfronts. This was widely expected to happen as the Peacock remains desperate for programming. There are literally too many shows that need replaced to be picky when it comes to such content decisions.
On that note, cancellations were handed out to Deception, Whitney, and 1600 Penn this week. None of these are shockers.
Update: More cancellations: Guys with Kids and Up All Night. The former was the Jimmy Fallon-produced sitcom (which might explain why NBC kept it on the air so long) while the latter starred Will Arnett, Maya Rudolph, and Christina Applegate. At one point, NBC wanted to change the program to a multi-camera series, but creative differences led to exits from the showrunner and eventually Applegate. This might as well have been cancelled a few months ago although now it is official.
By Jeff Rosz | May 8th, 2013  It looks like Adam Levine is already looking at life after The Voice. The talent coach and musician has just signed a one-year first-look deal with NBC to produce scripted and alternative programming for the network. This joins similar deals we have seen at the parent company level for other reality talents like American Idol’s Ryan Seacrest. In other words, he is definitely not a trail blazer, but it is more than interesting to see he wants to become a content producer going forward with his career.
UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. — May 8, 2013 — “The Voice” coach Adam Levine and producing partner Jordan Feldstein have signed an exclusive one-year first-look development deal with NBC Entertainment. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | May 7th, 2013 This is unprecedented. The Office finale will no longer be an hour long. Instead it will be 75 minutes long (with commercials of course) as The Peacock just revealed plans to make next week’s send off even bigger. The original game plan was 8-10 PM/ET with a farewell special airing at 8. Now, things will go all the way to 10:15 PM with its follow-up Hannibal being squished to a meager 45 minutes. Here is the release.
UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. — May 7, 2013 — NBC is extending the length of the final episode of “The Office,” with a running time that will now extend from 9-10:15 p.m. ET on Thursday, May 16. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | April 26th, 2013 Yesterday we heard the guest lineup for The Office finale (it was nothing too special and lacked mention of Steve Carell,) and today the Peacock revealed their run-up to finale night. A one-hour primetime special will air on Thursday, May 16 at 8 pm, making the series-ender a nightlong event as the last episode itself runs from 9 to 10 pm. Keep reading for more details.
UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. — April 26, 2013 — NBC has announced an hour-long primetime special dedicated to the seminal comedy “The Office.” It will air Thursday, May 16 (8-9 p.m. ET) as a prelude to the one-hour series finale of “The Office,” which will immediately follow. Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | April 26th, 2013  NBC has gone ahead and renewed their script lineup for next year, or at least some of it. Hour dramas returning this fall include Revolution, Chicago Fire, Law & Order: SVU, Grimm, and Parenthood.
“On the verge of our 2013 fall scheduling decisions, we’re pleased to renew five drama series that will be important to our new season line-up,” Salke said. “We’re proud and very appreciative of all of the actors, producers, writers and directors who work so hard to deliver such high-quality work week in and week out. These complex shows represent a broad range of genres and tones, and all of them stand out for us in a television landscape now filled with one-hour series. We’re especially pleased to be renewing “Revolution” and “Chicago Fire” — two first-season successes — and there will be more returning series announcements made in the next couple of weeks.” Continue Reading
By Jeff Rosz | April 24th, 2013 Remember last week when it was announced that NBC would be pulling an episode of Hannibal called Ceuf due to insensitivities surrounding child-on-child violence. Well, they really did that because it looks like advertisers wanted no part in the airing–it looked like an unnecessary shot at the Sandy Hook tragedy that would not play well after the Boston Marathon Bombing. The Peacock has sense repackaged the hour-long episode, the fourth in the series, as web-content. Do not worry though. The real deal will still probably make the DVD and definitely the internet via less than legal measures as foreign markets will still screen the ‘unpackaged’ version.
By Jeff Rosz | April 21st, 2013  Those of you who follow Saturday Night Live ratings and how consistent they have been might have noticed last night’s replay of a Chrstoph Waltz-hosted episode showed more of the same. The broadcast captured a 1.8 18-49 rating which was the show’s top repeat since a Jennifer Lawrence outing re-aired back in January. Regardless of head-to-heads though, it would appear that the long-running sketch variety series is at its peak in terms of a week-to-week recurring fanbase.
Everything seems so predictable and even Justin Timberlake’s much-hyped appearance did not deviate too much from normal outings. This is more of a vote of confidence for SNL as it looks to finish its 38th season on a high note. The next original episode will be hosted by Zach Galifianakis with musical guest Of Monsters and Men on May 4.
By Jeff Rosz | April 18th, 2013  It looks like the gap between next year’s Academy Awards and Golden Globes has just been stretched further. The two ceremonies historically have lived about a month across from each other, but after HFPA announced today’s news of the Globes airing on the second Sunday of next January, that award season layover appears to near two months’ times. In fairness, most of that is on the Oscars though as ABC commands exposure for their big event. Just a few weeks ago, they revealed that the more widely-watched of the two will be airing in March to avoid a head-to-head with the Winter Olympics. Continue Reading
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