| "NBC There, Let's All Be There!" NBC promo circa 1983. |
| Of all the schedules and new releases, NBC seems the weakest to me. I always have a soft spot for the Peacock and the memory of Brandon Tartikoff (yes, I will put him into every Fall Preview I write). My love of television was enabled by NBC in the '80s. All that said, I think NBC isn't going to see the successes they hope for this year. Jeff Zucker and Kevin Reilly really need to take a hard look at their system.Looking Back
None of the 2002 debuts are still on the sked (only American Dreams was a hit), and of that entire '02 schedule, only six shows are still airing today. 2003 wasn't any better, with five of six being genuine clunkers. Still no better for Fall '04, when you can really say that all six new shows, LAX, The Contender, Father of the Pride, Hawaii, Joey and Medical Investigation, were better left unwatched. The, um, crap keeps on flowing from NBC into 2005, one of their worst development seasons in recent memory. Only My Name is Earl was a keeper, the other five were told to leave.
2006-07
NBC has not a great few years by any measurement system. Sunday Night Football will give NBC the promotional platform they need to push their new shows, but looking at the grid, I can easily see writing next year how only one show, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, has been picked up. They seemingly lacked confidence in their lineup, so much so, they re-released their fall schedule several days after the original. That hasn't been done to the extent NBC did in recent memory. I'm not sure what the development process is at NBC, but it's clearly not working. Time for something new. |
|
|
