NBC is trying to figure out who it is. Besides “the fourth place network.” That part, they know. But sprinkled in among all the promotional talk at NBC’s “infront” fall programming announcement today was a lot of talk about “brand identity,” something the network has evidently spent a lot of time and research on lately. It’s like therapy, but more expensive.
The answer, from co-chair Ben Silverman and sundry other executives, has something to do with “positivity,” “real life and living,” characters who “make you feel good” and “who may have their flaws, but they come out on the side that’s right.” Basically, it would appear to be the same kind of vaguely positive image networks generally pitch to advertisers, with perhaps a smidge of communitarian age-of-Obama hoo-hah thrown in for trendiness. Also, it involves a lot of Jay Leno.
Before I outline the six new shows NBC did announce today, a word about what they did not announce. No actual schedule (that should come by or before May 19, around when the other broadcast networks do their “upfront” announcements in two weeks). No word on the fates of Chuck, Medium, Law & Order or My Name Is Earl (ditto, though Silverman confirmed that Life is dead).
Now for what NBC did say, after the jump:
The big focus of the presentation today (basically an encore, for a crowd of journalists, of the pitch NBC is making to advertisers in meetings now) was the controversial move to give Jay Leno the 10 p.m. hour from Monday through Friday in the fall. NBC’s line is that Jay may not draw huge ratings but (1) he’ll be in original shows 46 weeks of the year and (2) his show will be cheaper to produce.
Well, they didn’t say (2) directly. The most intriguing statement from Silverman was that while Jay may not post huge numbers at 10 p.m., NBC will be happy if he simply delivers his 11:30 numbers. Intriguing, because, while that’s undoubtedly true from the NBC Universal bean counters’ perspective (you can make more money with low ratings if the show is cheaper to produce), it’s not exactly an attractive message to push this time of year to advertisers, much less to the affiliates who are scared stiff that Leno will eviscerate their 11 p.m. news lead-in ratings.
On the entertainment side, the network had clips of six new series for 2009-10. I don’t pretend to judge each show’s quality from trailers, which can be misleading or underwhelming, but here they are:
Trauma: From Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights), a story of first-responder paramedics in San Francisco. Lots of explosions, blood and child-in-jeopardy drama. Hard to tell if this will be more FNL or Third Watch. (NBC made the point of saying they’d committed to a big budget for the show, an unusual boast in this day and age.)
Parenthood: From Jason Katims (also Friday Night Lights) and Ron Howard (who made the movie), an adaption of the film as an extended family drama. The trailer didn’t particularly stand out, but because I like Katims’ past work in this genre (Relativity), I’m still looking forward to seeing a full pilot.
Mercy: Second hospital drama, or perhaps dramedy, about a principled but flawed nurse. By fall, may be suffering from comparison to Showtime dark comedy Nurse Jackie, with Edie Falco as a principled but flawed nurse.
Day One: Premiering after the Winter Olympics, this postapocalyptic drama starts off in a Van Nuys apartment complex, whose residents must band together after projectiles from the sky wipe out cities around the world, and weird things begin growing from the ground. Melrose Place meets Jericho by way of Invasion?
Community: Joel McHale (The Soup) begins his quest to become the next Greg Kinnear in a single-camera comedy about a lawyer who falls on hard times and meets up with a band of misfit students at a community college. Seems to have potential.
100 Questions: Laugh-track comedy (directed by James Burrows) about a woman, “trying to meet Mr. Right,” and the pals who guide her on her journey. Seems a little more like NBC’s “brand identity” circa 1995, but we’ll see.
Among the other highlights and moments of the presentation:
* As mentioned earlier, NBC is returning Southland, Heroes and Parks and Recreation, which Silverman particularly singled out with a reference to the slow ratings starts of 30 Rock and The Office: “Patience with comedy pays off.”
* Most delightful verbal faux pas of the afternoon: praising special guest Amy Poehler (who showed up wearing a flu mask) about the big year she’s had, Silverman gushed, “You had a baby. You killed it on Saturday Night Live.” Not the baby.
* Donald Trump also showed up, to extol the product-placement opportunities on Celebrity Apprentice. Apparently the Chicken of the Sea people loved it.
* Rod Blagojevich is still appearing in the publicity stills for this summer’s I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here.
* Very little talk from the execs about Conan O’Brien, and most of that in the context of Leno’s show.
* As for the shows on the bubble, Silverman and others said in some cases renewal may depend on factors including how cost-effective they are to produce (translation: tighten your belts, studios!). Maybe you should stop eating footlongs to save Chuck and send the $5 bills directly to NBC.
