Tue, December 9, 2008
Leno moving to 10pm on NBC Unbelievable. Their window for narrative programming just keeps shrinking.
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Tue, December 9, 2008
Leno moving to 10pm on NBC Unbelievable. Their window for narrative programming just keeps shrinking.
© onebee · all rights reserved
Bee Boy — Mon, 12/15/08 9:23am
This continues to be just the most embarrassing blunder in a long series of blunders at NBC. Now comes word that the Peacock's stooges are not just terrible at developing narrative television, producing and marketing narrative television, and retaining talented people – they're also horrible at math.
From EW's attempt to polish the turd:
$3 million x 22 = $66 million
$400,000 x 46 x 5 nights a week = $92 million
Perhaps in this new era of bank failures, "saving a mint" really does mean "hemorrhaging money."
I'm assuming the $400,000 includes Jay's salary, which is rumored at $30 million a year. (That's ten episodes of a drama right there - and when has NBC ever aired a new drama all the way to its eleventh episode?) If it doesn't, the total tops out at $122 million per season, which is almost two whole seasons of a drama show. If it does, then each episode devotes nearly a third of its budget to Jay's salary, divvying up the remaining $270,000 amongst the other cast and crew and incidentals like steam-cleaning the robes for the Dancing Itos. I'm not sure which one it is, but neither one makes me proud.
Bee Boy — Mon, 12/15/08 2:33pm
Ugh, Jeebus. Also, this from Newsday's Verne Gay (to his credit, he also lists seven reasons the new show is a terrible idea):
My God, can you think of a worse Face for a network's Future? In my more charitable moods, I can admit that there are reasonable people who like watching Leno, and that not all of them are brainless vegetables. But they still hardly represent "the future" of a major TV network. It's a successful face, but a face of utter bland conformity, and "playing it safe." Bad for comedy (at least in my opinion), but catastrophic for a TV network at this particular juncture in broadcast entertainment. Zucker et al are basically saying, "Fine. Let everyone under 40 have the Internet. We don't need 'em." Short term gains may result, but that way lies eventual obsolescence.
Brandon — Mon, 12/15/08 7:56pm
The other difference is that Carson and Hope earned that position out of respect for their achievements; Leno is getting it by default (and really, the whole idea that he's the Face of the Future for NBC is an iffy concept at best) because of fear and ineptitude on the part of NBC.
And regarding your math above (which, by the way: hilarious!) – you also have to factor in the cost of whatever NBC would air to fill the slots not taken by that 22-episode drama (probably a reality show, maybe a Dateline?). I still don't think it would total more than 92 million though.
I suspect this decision has nothing to do with money NBC might save, and everything to do with money they think they can earn from better ad sales thanks to Leno's ratings. And as you've said, that may be fine in the short-term, but unless they're planning on just moving everybody down the chain (Conan to 10pm when Leno retires, etc), this is hardly a plan for the future.
Bee Boy — Mon, 12/15/08 10:32pm
Not only that, but my point is: people who like Leno will die. Not because I will personally travel the country hunting them down one by one, but because they're all old already, and I can't imagine someone who's a Conan viewer suddenly turning 45 (or whatever) and saying to himself, "Man, that Leno! I never got him before but suddenly he speaks to me!"
Brandon — Tue, 12/16/08 12:18am
No no, I get that. What I was getting at was are they just going to replace the dying Leno viewers with aging Conan viewers 10-15 years from now by moving Conan to 10pm, then put a younger guy in the Tonight Show slot, and keep repeating the cycle over and over again? "NBC: Pick a host to grow old and die with!"
Bee Boy — Tue, 12/16/08 1:47am
Ah, fascinating. Excellent point. And in another, creepier way, "NBC: Tell us what decade you were born in, and we'll tell you your bedtime!"
Joe Mulder — Wed, 12/17/08 1:53am
At the risk of embarrassing you, I should point out that Leno will be airing five nights a week, thereby replacing five 10 o'clock shows, not just one. Even if there's a news magazine or a reality show in there somewhere, you're still probably talking three dramas, minimum. 66 x 3 = 198; 198 > 92.
Bee Boy — Wed, 12/17/08 9:22am
Yes, I realized that after rereading it a few times, but I hoped people would have the decency to ignore it, or point it out by e-mail. I'm not normally so proud that I can't admit an error... but this is Leno!
Bee Boy — Fri, 1/9/09 10:43am
NBC is already struggling to find space for new shows in its lineup as a result of this staggeringly horrible mistake. (Though having to pass on a show called "Police" might be a positive. That rivals Medical Investigation for Least Inventive Show Title Ever. Then again I hear Friends made money.)
It just boggles me that someone can look at a lineup full of fat people on treadmills and three hours of Howie Mandel and say, "Gosh, I just don't know where we can fit in an interesting drama show!" (It shouldn't boggle me; Howie and the wide loads are way more profitable. But that really fucking boggles me.)