NBC's 'Do No Harm' = Biggest Flop in Network TV History!

Discussion in 'TV & Media' started by bigdaddy, Feb 2, 2013.

  1. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 15, 2001
    They could, they just don't. I think the reason cable networks rebroadcast their prime-time shows a few hours later is because they only provide one feed to all four time zones, so what's prime time in the Eastern time zone is too early for prime time in Mountain or Pacific. An 8 PM show on the East Coast would be airing at 5 PM on the West, and people are still driving home from work then. So there are two broadcasts to hit prime time for the two halves of the country, basically. The main broadcast networks don't have to do it that way since they have separate feeds for the different time zones.
     
  2. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Apr 15, 2000
    Location:
    In the lap of squalor I assure you.
    Listening to Stephen Cobert talking about Superbowl adspace has me wonder if most of the time, that no Americans are ever watching TV...

    God bless Meth.
     
  3. Data Holmes

    Data Holmes Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Apr 21, 2001
    Location:
    zone.33 lounge at club Planet Noir
    I actually liked the pilot. It was interesting. Had a few little rough spots, but no worse than most pilots. I hope they give it a shot to improve.
     
  4. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Apr 15, 2000
    Location:
    In the lap of squalor I assure you.
    On a rapidshare website I cruised though yesterday, they listed/labelled the first episode as the totality of season one.

    They're figuring out how to pull the plug much earlier.
     
  5. scotpens

    scotpens Professional Geek Premium Member

    Joined:
    Nov 29, 2009
    Location:
    City of the Fallen Angels
    I can't imagine how a show could be worse than Supertrain.
     
  6. bullethead

    bullethead Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Feb 24, 2008
    Actually, from what I understand, all channels provide one feed to Eastern/Central, then a separate one for Pacific. Reruns of shows that aired on the same night might just be a cheap way of getting ad revenue for cable channels.
     
  7. cylkoth

    cylkoth Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Jan 16, 2003
    The bigger, entertainment based cable nets do indeed, supply East coast/West coast feeds to cable systems. There are still a few smaller, (or less powerful-from an industry influence standpoint) cable channels that send a single feed. WGN America being one example.
     
  8. shivkala

    shivkala Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Apr 26, 2004
    Location:
    shivkala
    I very rarely start a new hour long drama. This season, I've only started watching Arrow. Needless to say, nothing about the previews for this caught my interest.

    As far as NBC goes, I think the worst thing that I can say is that I really started liking the show Go On and have to keep remembering it's on NBC, not ABC.
     
  9. the G-man

    the G-man Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 22, 2010
    Location:
    to your immediate right
    Same here. I'll wait for a season to conclude and then watch it on DVD or streaming if the reviews are good enough.

    To be fair, this is about ratings, not quality.

    Also, were Supertrain's ratings that low or was it a case of the ratings not being good enough to justify the (I think) unprecedented budget?
     
  10. bigdaddy

    bigdaddy Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 19, 2007
    Location:
    Space Massachusetts
    A show in 1979 would air on one of what three channels? So the ratings couldn't be that low.
     
  11. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 15, 2001
    If it were a commerical network show. There was also PBS and various independent stations.
     
  12. The Borgified Corpse

    The Borgified Corpse Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jun 4, 2000
    Location:
    Ouch! Forgotten already? You were just down ther
    To the extent that NBC has an identity, I think its identity is sitcoms that appeal to a smarter audience than the bland crap that CBS provides. But even that identity is in peril now because 30 Rock & The Office are ending this season and Community will likely get cancelled after they burn off the remaining episodes this spring. :(

    I really miss the original Law & Order. :( Cancelling a legend like that in favor of an untested Los Angeles spin-off was just dumb.

    Cable networks (and PBS) repeat their stuff all the time. Part of this is because they don't have to worry so much about local affiliate content. I wish I had cable if only because cable channels show actual TV shows during the daytime instead of innundating us with godawful talk shows & judge shows. (There's a woman at work that's always putting the TV in the break room onto The Wendy Williams Show. It's the most useless piece of garbage I've ever seen. She even did this once right in the middle of an episode of Law & Order: SVU that I was watching!:mad:)
     
  13. Harvey

    Harvey Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 8, 2005
    I imagine that twenty seasons of cost increases mixed with the expense of shooting in New York and declining ratings made the Los Angeles-based spin-off quite appealing. They might have tried pairing them together at first, though, before discarding the original.
     
  14. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 15, 2001
    Yup. Most network decisions that seem "dumb" or arbitrary seem less so once you realize that virtually all decisions in television are ultimately about money. In prose, you can do whatever you can imagine; in TV, you can only do what you can afford, and what's practically and logistically achievable.
     
  15. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Apr 15, 2000
    Location:
    In the lap of squalor I assure you.
    You're forgetting exposition.

    The Tick (TV Show) was great at this.

    They were always talking about these billion dollar special effects that just happened off camera as giant fire breathing robots kicked over bridges and...

    Shakespeare used to be good at this with his Histories as well, staging his scenes around massive battles which the characters would then complain and marvel about.

    Have you seen the movie Rage?

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1234550/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2

    It's just actors talking, like in a confession to a blogger who is recording their monologuing with his cellphone, but all these things are happening, the moment is spinning out of control, but we don't see anything but talking heads in front of a changing colour field depending on the emotion of the content, stressing over their involvement in the developments.

    But, that is cheating.

    Forcing lazy people to use their imagination.

    Worse than subtitles really.

    I wonder how difficult it was to shoot the original Fame TV series?
     
  16. Enterprise is Great

    Enterprise is Great Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 24, 2004
    Location:
    The Island
    Do no Harm is Do No Ratings. This show will probably be canceled tomorrow morning. Will NBC air every episode or will they yank it from the schedule is the only unknown at this point.
     
  17. Taylirious

    Taylirious Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 6, 2009
    Location:
    Wonderland
  18. bigdaddy

    bigdaddy Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 19, 2007
    Location:
    Space Massachusetts
    Only because of football and The Voice, scripted shows suck, and football is over.
     
  19. Dream

    Dream Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Dec 2, 2001
    Location:
    Derry, Maine
    Looks like NBC's Smash season two premiere was a big flop too.

    http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/20...e-mindy-project-up-the-bachelor-rises/168296/

    It probably ends after this season.
     
  20. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Apr 15, 2000
    Location:
    In the lap of squalor I assure you.
    Well, episode 2 aired.

    For some reason.

    It's like they said "If you 'll put up with Beauty and the Beast, maybe you won't mind some this just a little bit more painful?"

    I liked the new episodes of Smash. :)