More Innovation From NBC
NBC has announced a radical idea… a two-hour comedy block on Thursday nights! Starting next month, Thursday will look like this: 30 ROCK, SCRUBS, MY NAME IS EARL, THE OFFICE and then, unamusingly, E.R. You may have noticed the glaring absence of the expensive, high-profile TWENTY GOOD YEARS. Yeah, that’s out. Low ratings. I bet it would have done better on CBS, where everything skews older. Or perhaps, where they tend to have viewers. In any event, the title was mighty wishful thinking.
The Wednesday slot formerly occupied by 30/TWENTY will be given over to specials, temporarily. Or more specifically, reality shows airing outside their normal slots, like THE BIGGEST LOSER and DEAL OR NO DEAL. I’m starting to notice a defeatist trend in NBC reality show titling. I wonder how 1 VS 100 is doing?
This comedy block plans marks the first exception to the “no scripted programming before 9:00pm” policy announced last week. Expect everything they announced to fall by the wayside by December, to be replaced by a “recycle paper clips, no free coffee” policy. They’ll make up the $750 million that way.
