At around this time last year, as I looked at each network’s prime-time schedule for the 2006-2007 season, one thing jumped out: NBC had a great lineup. From returning shows such as “The Office,” to interesting new fare including “Studio 60,” “Friday Night Lights,” “Kidnapped” and “Heroes,” I was intrigued by the Peacock’s lineup for the first time since “Seinfeld” went off the air. In this very column, I predicted that NBC’s lineup could potentially turn around the network’s fortunes in the same swift fashion that “Lost,” “Desperate Housewives” and “Grey’s Anatomy” had done for ABC.
Well, I was half right. On one hand, the 2006-2007 season was among NBC’s worst ever ratings-wise. Yet on the other hand, the network is in a startlingly similar position to one it found itself in over 20 years ago.
At that time, Grant Tinker was the head of programming at NBC and the network was getting pummeled by CBS and ABC. Plus, its most critically acclaimed shows, “Cheers” and “Hill Street Blues,” were among the worst-rated shows on TV. Since the network was already at rock bottom, however, Tinker and his colleagues adopted a “What have we got to lose?” attitude. Instead of canceling shows that they believed in and liked, NBC chose to nurture them.
Today, NBC executives have embraced a similar motto: “First be the best, then be first.” And really, NBC is well on its way to fulfilling this maxim.
Its “Comedy Night Done Right,” consisting of “My Name is Earl,” “The Office,” “30 Rock” and “Scrubs,” represents the most solid lineup of Thursday night comedies that the network has had since the days of “Friends,” “Seinfeld” and “Frasier.” More than that, “The Office” and “30 Rock” rank up there with the canceled “Arrested Development” as two of the best comedies to grace network TV since “Seinfeld’s” demise.
Then come the dramas. First, there’s “Heroes,” which is like NBC’s answer to “Lost.” Of course, it isn’t as good as ABC’s cultural phenom and is really more of a collection of comic book cliches, from “Watchmen” to the X-Men’s “Days of Future Past” story line (creator Tim Kring claiming he’s never read comics is as close to a bald-faced lie as you can get), but it’s one of the season’s highest-rated new shows. Then comes “Friday Night Lights,” the show based on the book and movie of the same name, which has probably been the best-reviewed new show of the year. Hell, it even won a Peabody Award, which is like the TV equivalent of a Pulitzer. Unlike “Heroes,” though, “Friday Night Lights” has struggled to stay afloat, averaging just over 6 million viewers on the year.
Tina Fey’s “30 Rock” has had a similar problem of being adored by critics but shunned by viewers. Yet unlike past years, when NBC just would have canceled both shows, both didn’t just get renewed ““ they also got full-season orders.
As bizarre as it might sound, the most exciting time for a TV network can be when things are going poorly. Sure, job security is a major issue, and the pressure-cooker atmosphere of TV (which is already bad enough) becomes almost unbearable. Yet situations like this are often what cause networks to take more chances on things they wouldn’t normally bother with.
As recently as five years ago, NBC got fat and happy off airing multiple installments of “Dateline NBC” in a week and multiple “Law & Order” spin-offs. If you’re No. 1, and you want to stay that way, what are you more likely to take a chance on: a show about some wacky island mystery, or a spin-off of one of your established brands?
Sure, coming in last in the ratings is never a goal one would strive for. But as NBC has shown us before, sometimes hitting rock bottom is the best thing that can happen.
Well, aside from actually being in first place.
Humphrey still can’t believe how vastly superior “30 Rock” is to “Studio 60.” Eat crow with him by e-mailing him at mhumphrey@media.ucla.edu.