On Wednesday, NBC issued a press release regarding more of its mid-season schedule. Last week NBC already made some announcements around the return of Friday Night Lights, the premiere of The Biggest Loser: Couples, and January fare such as Momma's Boys, Howie Do It and Superstars of Dance.
Merlin? Nowhere to be found.
Yesterday's announcement showcases its after the Super Bowl plans, as well as the return of Medium, the premiere of King, the series finale of ER and a four hour event over two Sundays for XIII. The release did note that times/dates for "The Untitled Amy Poehler Project" and The Philanthropist will be announced at a later date.
Knight Rider has an early season-finale on February 25, and looking at the Renew/Cancel Index it sure seems likely it's the series finale. Plus, it is a "we don't want this show on during March sweeps" move. Though Life, which has a lower index score than Knight Rider will stick around (at least longer than Knight Rider). NBC will air a new, yet unannounced show in Knight Rider's 8pm slot beginning March 4.
I'm not sure anyone will actually speculate that Knight Rider is just "retooling" to come back strong next fall, but just in case... Unless Ford is paying NBC a hefty fee, I wouldn't be optimistic. And I wouldn't be optimistic about a company from an auto industry looking for bailouts paying hefty fees. Two words: series finale.
The solid (ratings-wise, at least last season) Medium makes its comeback on Mondays at 10pm. This brings up an issue for me where perhaps I am a bit hypocritical. Medium gets a very long hiatus since its last new episode last spring, but it is no stranger to long hiatuses. It doesn't really bother me at all, because once it's on, it's on without being put on hiatus, and it has shown that it can weather the mid-season season premieres. Obviously viewers find shows they want to find - American Idol isn't hurt by being off the air for eight months.
But the "mini-hiatus" approach with show like Chuck, Life and Heroes which have all faced their own ratings challenges I do find somewhat bothersome. Both the length of the breaks and how they time are timed. These shows will be on hiatus for seven weeks. I can't think of any successful scripted shows that take such long breaks. Many break for four or five weeks, but most shows that do so do it during the holidays, taking off most of December.
Grey's Anatomy goes on break after the December 4 episode and returns January 8, Desperate Housewives breaks after the December 7 episode and returns January 4. CSI breaks after December 11 and returns January 8, etc. Those breaks make sense to me. Heroes going on break after the December 15 episode and returning February 2? That just strikes me as too long.
I don't know if it's the notion that it kills momentum because other than perhaps Chuck, any momentum those shows has is in the wrong direction (I like Life, but its Nielsen ratings make me wince). I don't know if it's the notion that it gives people the chance to get hooked into other shows while those shows are off the air. I think mostly it's that in some ways NBC seems to be programming its broadcast network in a similar fashion to the way it programs USA and SciFi on cable, and I'm not sure that's a good call.
It's hard for me to say. It doesn't really bother me that shows like Burn Notice or Battlestar Galactica go off the air for months - I understand why it's done that way there and moreover, I'm a creature of the DVR. The shows will get recorded and I'll wind up watching. The same is true for Chuck, Life and yes (I'll admit I'm insane and still watching) Heroes. But my viewing habits can't be applied to the larger television viewing population, at least not yet.
More than two-thirds of the homes in the USA still don't have DVRs in them. I worry say for a show like Chuck being off the air for all of January just gives people time to get hooked into shows like The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother. I have no doubt the hardcore Chuck faithful come back to watch in February. It's the more casual viewing fans I worry about.
All that said, a few words in defense of NBC's approach - at least this year:
I'm not sure it's a big deal this year. NBC can use the Super Bowl to promote the hell out of Heroes and Chuck which will be on the very next night. Chuck may rise to a season-high on the special 3-D episode and its associated promotion. And I have little doubt (though some doubt) that many past-lovers of Heroes who bailed on the current installment will come back to sample the premiere of the Fugitives volume. I expect it will have more viewers than the finale of the current volume, Villains. I'd expect that even without the Super Bowl promotion.
It also seems to be that Heroes will not air during May sweeps and finish up on April 20 - if that turns out to be true, I don't know if I can fault NBC. The fact is, as much as I have been ruminating on the long pauses above, in Heroes first season (due to the WGA strike, there's no comparison for the second season) it took a seven week break from December 4 to January 22. Total viewers only dropped by about 100,000 when it returned.
But then, Heroes took another seven week break between March 4 to April 23 and when it returned for five episodes, it had lost around 3 million viewers from the March 4 episode (14.9 million to 11.96 million). Other than the season one finale, which drew 13.48 million, they didn't come back for the other episodes.
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Washington Post TV columnist Lisa de Moraes is not impressed by the schedule or the absence of Merlin and The Philanthropist from the schedule:
In what might be a broadcast-TV first, NBC appears to have run out of shows.
Two one-hour series that the network had set for its midseason schedule -- "The Philanthropist" and "Merlin" -- are nowhere to be found: Now it appears that the former might not debut until next season and the latter not until the summer.
Seems like NBC’s biggest problem is that they did not make any pilots last year. If the lack of Merlin and The Philanthropist are a sign that the shows are not doing well, NBC would have been able to see this before picking them up if they had just made the pilots.
Also, I think the other nets are having really short hiatuses this season. Don’t shows usually return the third week of January? NBC’s does seem to be long, but not too much longer than most shows most other years.
Lisa de Moraes is never impressed by anything. Except herself.
It will be interesting to see the results of Friday Night Lights (NBC-Direct TV deal) when it airs. If it succeeds it could result in other marginal series getting a reprieve. If it fails (like the illl-fated Jericho Season 2 “experiment”). It would result in no other such attempts to revive low rated shows using such plan – at least not any time soon.
It seems to me that NBC is just flying by the seat of their pants. They throw things out there and hope they will stick. When you are in last place it would make sense to see what the others above you are doing to get there and copy them. Does it matter if you’re accused of copying when your shows start being watched? What does NBC do? Keep what little hits they have off the air longer and then spin the reasons why. NBC needs to come up with a visable plan, stick with it and not just keep making shows nobody wants (Rosie Live?) Maybe even bring in someone who knows something about programming? It seems the old school boys just won’t admit they know nothing and step aside for aomeone who does! Good luck with that!
Could this have more to do with Ford no longer being able to foot the bill of keeping it’s 45 minute infomercial on the air now that the the recession is knocking hard on the doors of the automotive industry? They seemed pretty oblivious of the numbers until now.
The lack of Merlin from the NBC line-up is confusing given that the episodes are already in the can, the show is a BBC production and the bulk of the episodes have already aired over here in the UK. I suppose its possible that NBC wants to roll the show over to next year and merge the first and second season into one complete US season, UK shows traditionally run at 10-13 episodes and Merlin’s first season will end at 13 episodes this year, so maybe they just want to air 20-something episodes of the show next year. Alternatively they might just be concerned that there won’t be a second season since the BBC has yet to commit to one and don’t want to air the show until the future of it has been decided.
With that said in regards to NBC leaning more toward programming the network in a similar way to their cable channels, does that not fit in with comments made by Ben Silverman a couple of months ago about the NBC audience? Didn’t he say something along the lines of the competitions audience all watching through bunny ears whilst the NBC audience would DVR shows whilst they were out at theatres or something? Maybe he really believes that and thinks that the NBC audience is ready for more seasonal style programming. And its hard to imagine that the results are going to be much worse than what they’re currently achieving.
Maybe NBC actually watched Merlin and saw how bad it is! Anyone who thinks British programs are automatically superior to US shows needs to watch that one (and Bonekickers).
Hi, long time lurker on the site. You guys do such a fantastic job here, thank you so much!
Can anyone tell me the status of a show that I thought ABC was going to do, “Prince of Motor City”? Not sure if that was the title. I was really looking forward to giving that one a chance.
It may be for the best scheduling wise to hold Merlin until the summer and hold The Philanthropist until the fall. Theres no point in just sticking them on the schedule in March or April if their only gunna fail anyway.
I’m thinking that networks should break the year in three parts:
Summer June-September
Fall October-december
Winter/Spring January-May
having distincts programas during this periods.
this avoid some breaks and many repeats in series and other advantages.
I tend to think that the major networks would be better served with a better mixture in their scheduling techniques, so you have a cycle of seasonal shows that air at the same time of year every year mixed in with a series of long running shows that fit more with the traditional scheduling mould and acting as a backbone to the network. So whilst something like Heroes for example would run in its current form you’d limit Chuck for example to a summer season run.
“Maybe NBC actually watched Merlin and saw how bad it is! Anyone who thinks British programs are automatically superior to US shows needs to watch that one (and Bonekickers).”
That’s always possible, although I have to admit that I’ve only watched the first two or three episodes of Merlin and apparently it has gotten a lot better further into the run. With that said I think Merlin has become a repeat of Robin Hood rather than the repeat of Doctor Who that the BBC was obviously hoping it would be. With that said its been getting 6 million viewers up against The X Factor so I can’t see the BBC not bringing it back next year regardless of quality.
Julia,
The Philanthropist is just starting to film in South Africa. Neve Campbell just joined the cast and the NBC execs don’t think there will be enough episodes for the show to premiere midseason.
As for Merlin–maybe Crusoe gave NBC the jitters.
I live in Canada but I’ve watched all the episodes of Merlin so far online and IMO they’re REALLY GOOD! Any chance NBC will have Merlin take Knight Rider’s slot?
Also, one more thing, Ben Silverman doesn’t believe in pilots.
Hi Mike,
The Prince of Motor City was not on the schedule, so I’m assuming the show wasn’t picked up. Too bad, it would have been timely.
Merlin is indeed a BBC show that is already airing (if not done airing) in the UK. And how on Earth anyone at NBC thought airing a show with BBC quality special effects/production budgets in the US would fly, even at a pittance of a license fee, is absurd. NBC should banish this to the depths of Summer filler.
Given the format issues The Philanthropist had, they too should have been dropped; instead, I think the tab on this project has risen to the point where it has to air next Fall, even if guaranteed to not make it into 2010. Mondays at 10pm looks likely.
But Robert, I disagree with you completely on Heroes. You are forgetting one crucial element: their timeslot competition. The last time Heroes & 24 went head to head, Heroes was in its best season and 24 was in its worst. Throwing Heroes to the wolves when the relative situations have changed is not wise. Letting 24 air its (usually) explosive intro and then settling in to its middling midseason episodes before airing Heroes against it, even if some viewers are lost to the long hiatus, makes far more sense, overall.
Alex,
If you stick with the show, you’ll find that Merlin is much better than Robin Hood. A couple things that may hold it back from being successful in the US is the predictable writing in the early part of the season, and the fact that it strays a fair bit from established versions of the Merlin tale. And the British accents. However, the show does have a very talented and charismatic young cast which will probably be popular among younger viewers, and the writing does improve a lot in later episodes. Notice also that it’s British ratings are quite resilient despite being up against ratings powerhouse X Factor. The chances of a second season are very high.
Julia, four week breaks from December-January seemed to be the rule. I looked at it somewhat extensively, going back into the early 2000s, — though my research was by no means exhaustive. Sometimes it was four weeks from early December to early January, sometimes mid-December to mid January, but only four weeks.
Alex, oh I believe NBC/Ben drink their own kool-aide. I’m not sure the advertisers are drinking it though. “Our audience is special, so it’s small” probably doesn’t sell well. NBC definitely said it was going with the “year round’ schedule which I interpret to be the same thing as your “cycle of seasonal shows”. I’m just not sure it works on broadcast unless all of the networks do it.
I am curious as to the Friday Night Lights experiment here – I’m a current DVR-watcher of the DirecTV first run eps. DirecTV seems very pleased with its results so far. Will this “repeat” stigma worsen the ratings, or leave them unchanged on NBC versus last season? FNL will have new competition in the CBS series Flashpoint, too. And Flashpoint has a week’s head-start in the schedules.
Both CBS and NBC are using Fridays at 9 p.m. as “sharing” spots: Flashpoint is cost-shared by CTV in Canada, and FNL is cost-shared by DirecTV of course. I wonder if that timeslot is considered a good place for experiments, as expecations are a bit lower?
And BTW, Joe, the FNL experiment is nothing at all like Jericho Season 2. I certainly WISH Jericho had been offered the same experiment, but it never was – at least not yet! Rumors abound that Comcast talks broke down over episode costs, but in the end, Jericho does not have a cost-share partner, and thus Jericho is no “experiment” whatsoever. Jericho is much more comparable to “Eli Stone,” in that they were bubble shows that were given a second chance and didn’t quite get the Nielsen ratings the nets were looking for. FNL is a bubble show, but its success is not tied exclusively to Nielsen ratings. DirecTV has a say in its future now – and their 101 Network has zero Nielsen expectations
DirecTV seems very pleased with its results so far.
What makes you say that?