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

[Temis the Vorta]

jayceee wrote:

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Over most of the 2000's, I thought NBC was the Law & Order network.

(In parallel, I thought CBS was the CSI network over most of the 2000's).

That's the danger of being defined too strongly by one show. NBC still has one L&O series but that's hardly enough. Even CBS will have to stop defining themselves as the police procedural channel eventually - their audience keeps aging out of the demo the advertisers want - but NBC is at that point now.

I think they need to look at the success they've had with Grimm and Revolution, and rebuild their brand around that. Not just genre TV, but with a heavy dose of genre, and compelling action-adventure across the board. Good example of a non-genre success: Chicago Fire. Broadcast isn't glutted with shows about firemen, so that stands out.

[Temis the Vorta]

bigdaddy wrote:

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That's what they claim but no one watches network TV in the summer. It's all light summer fluff now.

That's starting to change as networks realize they can't afford to flat out ignore summer. CBS is launching Under the Dome this summer and it sounds like they plan to make some noise with it, not just bury it. (And it's a sign they're planning for a future when their procedurals stop working so well for them.)

[Mr. Adventure]

jayceee wrote:

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Over most of the 2000's, I thought NBC was the Law & Order network.

(In parallel, I thought CBS was the CSI network over most of the 2000's).

I still think of them that way, perhaps others do too and haven't returned to see what's changed?

I have heard that the younger generation is pretty agnostic when it comes to delivery, they don't really associate a program with its source, so maybe if they get the right shows they can get some viewers (for those shows at least).

[the G-man]

bigdaddy wrote:

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That's what they claim but no one watches network TV in the summer. It's all light summer fluff now.

But isn't one of the criticisms of network TV that they don't do the same type of innovative things that cable does?

[bigdaddy]

Cable shows reruns of their shows at 11 and 12 at night, networks can't do that.

No one watches TV until 10pm at the earliest in the summer. If the weather is bad people watch fluff like America's Got Talent and SYTYCDance because if you miss parts of it that doesn't matter, you can just jump right in.

[Christopher]

bigdaddy wrote:

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Cable shows reruns of their shows at 11 and 12 at night, networks can't do that.

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.

[Guy Gardener]

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.

[Data Holmes]

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.

[Guy Gardener]

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.

[scotpens]

Carcazoid wrote:

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It's worse than My Mother The Car? Wow!

I can't imagine how a show could be worse than Supertrain.

[bullethead]

Christopher wrote:

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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.

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.

[cylkoth]

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.

[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.

[the G-man]

shivkala wrote:

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I very rarely start a new hour long drama.

Same here. I'll wait for a season to conclude and then watch it on DVD or streaming if the reviews are good enough.

scotpens wrote:

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I can't imagine how a show could be worse than Supertrain.

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?

[bigdaddy]

A show in 1979 would air on one of what three channels? So the ratings couldn't be that low.