Pages tagged “nbc”

OK, OK...so, its not an Office spin-off (like we previously believed). But it is still a new NBC comedy series starring Amy Poehler and Aziz Ansari, and it did just take one step closer to being like The Office by casting one of the its former stars, Rashida Jones.

The fact that I hadn’t ever really seen anything like Pushing Daisies should have been my first clue it was headed toward the graveyard. In this day and age—where crime shows, hospital dramas and reality TV dominate the Nielsen’s top tier—there isn’t much room on network television for anything outside of the status quo. Pushing Daisies was just too inventive, too ingenious, and just too damn cute to survive in these turbulent TV times. So it goes.

TV heaven got a bit more cramped last week as NBC announced the cancellation of two of its prime-time dramas: My Own Worst Enemy, starring Christian Slater as a double-life-leading former CIA agent, and Lipstick Jungle, starring Brooke Shields, Kim Raver and Lindsay Price as rich white women making bad choices in the Big Apple.

Having never seen an episode of My Own Worst Enemy, I can only attest to the quality of Lipstick Jungle (and read on, I will), but by now we should all know that even the best showssnagged enough viewers to stave off the executioners blow are no match for the bad ratings. And both of these shows had 'em, so the cancellations should come as no real shock. Instead, the surprise of the week was which show had, indeed, snagged enough viewers to stave off the executioner's blow: Kath & Kim.

The cancellations for the Fall TV season are slowly rolling in, and now NBC is getting in on the action. The Hollywood Reporter has revealed the network has axed two of its dramas, sophomore Lipstick Jungle and freshman series My Own Worst Enemy.

It's the season of villains and episode 42 ("Villains") looks back at how they came to be through the whitened eyes of Hiro during his spirit journey. Mohinder's narration during the intro talks about how some people choose the path of darkness. But almost all those crossroads have been manipulated by a single man, either directly or through his work at "The Company."

Recently, Entertainment Weekly reported that NBC announced plans to pick up its new series Kath & Kim for a full first season. This means nine more episodes for the lukewarm-rated series, which draws six million viewers weekly.

Michael Phelps’ Olympic screen time is up for now, but viewer interest has persisted beyond the 14-time gold medalist’s sports coverage. In the last week, he’s been picked up as a presenter on MTV's Video Music Awards, and on Sept. 13 he will host the season premiere of Saturday Night Live, accompanied by musical guest Lil Wayne.

Sure, you know the Weather Channel. Maybe you turn it on for a few minutes each morning as you wake up and decide whether to wear your raincoat or your dinosaur onesie that day. But do you really know the Weather Channel? Could you recite its primetime programming? Do you know what comes on before the show that prepares you for natural disasters and the show that highlights the most outrageous natural disasters? We didn’t think so.

[Above: The cast of NBC's The Office]

Back in 1991, Fox, a then-fledgling network, unveiled a revolutionary plan to show new episodes of its struggling teen drama Beverly Hills 90210 over the summer. Critics were astounded. Who would watch TV over the summer? Wouldn't most folks rather spend the warm nights outside enjoying nature, rather than plopped in front of the tube?

Of course not. After all, this is America! Land of the free and home of the obese! Sandwiches for all! We kid, of course...but mostly because we're worried about CIA operatives silencing our dissenting voice.

ANYWAY...

90210's summer run strengthened the show, and it quickly became the most watched program by the coveted teenage demographic. However, even in the face of its summer success, networks remained weary of trotting out new programming in the warmer months, preferring to focus on the fall and (more recently) winter months to unveil anything but reality television hits like Big Brother and Survivor.

That was then. Ben Silverman is now. Yesterday, the co-chairman and other head honchos of NBC Entertainment unveiled plans to bravely go where no network has gone before—into 52-week prime-time programming. Announced yesterday by Jeff Zucker, president/CEO of NBC Universal, the format will reflect "today's multiplatform media environment," and help to quell what he calls an "insatiable desire for new content year round."

Silverman, a favorite of New York magazine's Vulture blog for his boy-wonder-slash-mad-genius ways, has already begun to change the face of television as we know it (or perhaps it's more accurate to say begun to change it back to how we knew it...in the '90s). Since 2008 began, new programs like American Gladiators and Knight Rider have popped up on NBC in an attempt to move the network out of its current spot at the bottom of the barrel. So far, there seems to be a method to Silverman's madness - American Gladiators had the highest ratings of any premiere this season, and the Knight Rider TV movie scored better ratings than anything else in its time slot.

All of which begs the question of whether the network can continue to pump out enough quality programming to keep viewers interested over those endless summer days. Can Silverman continue his hot streak? Or is this all just an attempt to punish TV writers for their strike earlier this year?

In true network television fashion, the answers to these questions, and more, will unfold over the coming weeks. In the meantime, watch the following trailer for the original Knight Rider. But remember...

Don't Hassel the Hoff:

Related links:
Paste: Val Kilmer replaces Will Arnett as Knight Rider voice
You Tube: Knight Rider 2008 Teaser
NBC.com

Got news tips for Paste? E-mail news@pastemagazine.com.

Partially a response to the writers’ strike that has brought Hollywood to a screeching halt over the past 11 weeks, NBC has announced that it will be producing a very limited number of pilots this season, if any at all.

"I think there were a tremendous number of inefficiencies in Hollywood and it often takes a seismic event to change them, and I think that's what's happened here," Jeff Zucker, CEO of NBC Universal, told the Financial Times.

Curtailing this process is estimated to save the network about $50 million a year, according to the New York Times. The average cost of producing a pilot has more than doubled in the past three years, increasing from $3 million to $7 million per show. According to C21 Media, typically only about one out of 10 pilots are developed into a full season.

Officials at NBC assure they will continue to try new material as it becomes available for series development. After all, so many programs only see a single-season run anymore. This seems to be the new proving grounds, rather than testing every pilot in front of a sample audience.

Zucker told the Financial Times that pilot season was beginning to be an unnecessary step in production—an antiquated part of the process. Media buyers have reportedly been asking for a change as well. And when a network’s primetime viewership has been down over the past few seasons like NBC’s has, an alteration like this might be exactly what it needs.

This is just one of several industry changes that could result from the strike. Variety reports that other ideas include extending the regular season into June, breaking from the September to May status quo. With discussion open between the two parties of the strike, questions abound. Can viewers expect to see their favorite shows again this season? Will companies wait until next season? Will episodes resume this summer?

"If all we can do is four more episodes, there are pretty substantial amortization costs in order to go back into production," one network executive told Variety, referencing shows in their first season. "Each of those episodes will cost a lot of money. And my guess is the networks won't be generous in helping with that."

Related links:
News: The Writers Guild of America’s strike is on
BBC News: NBC to stop producing pilot shows
Reuters: Despite Writers’ Strike, NBC slate remains intact

Got news tips for Paste? Email news@pastemagazine.com.

Six months since it threatened the video-sharing site YouTube with a lawsuit over copyright infringement, NBC has recently reversed its course of action and announced a deal to become the first major network to partner with the up-and-coming website to create an official “NBC Channel,” specifically designed to show promotional clips of television shows.

While new NBC content will be uploaded on a weekly basis, to kick-start this new merging the network will host a competition inviting YouTube users to submit their own 20-second spots for “The Office” wherein the winning submissions will be aired during an episode of the show in August.

Contributing: MediaPost