Sure, ABC can have Jimmy Kimmel crack jokes about the competition at their upfront presentation, but only at CBS's meeting will the executives be talking smack about the competition!
First, we've heard this before from Les Moonves, but like his network, he knows what works for him and he keeps coming back to it:
[Moonves said] “There’s a difference between the business model being broke and not being able to find any hit shows for years,” Mr. Moonves added, alluding to NBC replacing scripted programming at 10 p.m. with a new Jay Leno show weeknights.
But CBS was spreading the smack talk around, this is directed at Turner, which has been a public leader in arguing for the equalizing of broadcast and cable advertising rates:
CBS President for Sales Jo Ann Ross declared network TV “the best investment for all those budgets,” comparing the “folding chairs at the Hammerstein Ballroom,” where Turner held its presentation earlier in the day, with the plush seats at Carnegie Hall.
Ouch!
via TVWeek
This from the network with zero buzz, Les please pull the plug on the CW
A few years back in the UK a service called ITV Digital (early incarnation of DVB-T Freeview) got shut down when it over committed cash to pay service televised football.
Sky TV (Murdoch owned) was ITV Digitals mortal enemy and when it won the battle Sky execs sent a number of boxes of Banana’s to ITV’s Offices to “feed the monkeys”.
What came out later was that a Murdoch controlled operation had cracked, then leaked, the encryption technology that ITV Digital was using…..
Full story here….
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2002/mar/13/media.citynews
Now THAT’S not just talking smack!!
Idoit CBS
I don’t really like the new schedule of CBS
They changed a lot of timeslots of their hit shows
THINGS WITH BATTERIES ARE ELECTRONIC
MORE AT 11
I don’t know if I’d be doing this if I were them. I mean the entire industry is pretty cyclical, and with cable gaining more ground, in about 5-6 years, it could be CBS that’s the butt of all jokes.
NBC stinks so I agree with CBS.
The one thing we take away from this is that network execs aren’t as funny as the talent.
So they might as well shut up and go back to talking about their “quality programming” – i.e., their upcoming “quality programming”, not the “quality programming” that tanked in the ratings this past season.
Another example from George Lopez at the TNT upfront:
“”My name is Lopez — the late is already implied,” Lopez quipped in explaining why the word “late” isn’t part of the show title. “Some nights I may not even show up.” He also joked that in this recession he has to do three jobs on the show — write, executive produce and host it. And he quipped that TBS has big trust to give a Mexican a show at the height of the swine flu epidemic.”
Yeah CBS should talk about no hits when they own 51% of the CW.
“it could be CBS that’s the butt of all jokes.”
CBS would be the last to fall. I’m not a fan of most of their shows(I like Big Brother), but NBC and ABC would fall before CBS.
I don’t have cable and don’t plan on wasting my money on it, because it would be pointless to pay for something I would only watch 2 hours per day.
And these are the people that canceled Without a Trace and Eleventh Hour and picked up Medium?
NBC is a para dime to me, all of their institutional shows. Nightly News, SNL, The Tonight Show. They are rocking in the Rating’s why can’t they come up with something original.
Ummm…First, the word is paradigm. Second, did you just say that NBC is rocking in the ratings?! While they are still beating the CW and MyNetworkTV, fourth place is hardly rocking.
O I agree with you David, CBS doesn’t really have much reason to worry right now, and probably not for awhile. But then back in 1997 people were saying the same thing about NBC. My point is, the business goes in cycles.
To those that want to read the cycles the following website could be of interest…..
http://www.classictvhits.com/tvratings/index.htm
It’s amazing how often in the early years that CBS had 8 or 9 shows in the top 10
I know this is not a grammar-precise site… but “competion” (last word in 1st sentence)? I point this out only because you did spell it right earlier in the same sentence. Just saying
i think network tv is falling, but i dont think it will die anytime soon. CBS has the right to make jokes, considering they constantly find shows that bring in the most viewers in.
I think all the networks will be around for a while except for the CW, which I honestly expect to go under by 2011 or 2012. But ABC, CBS, FOX, and even NBC have nothing to worry about right away.
Holly: I think he meant they’re rocking the ratings in all but prime-time.
#1 in mornings and way ahead of the competition.
#2 in day time.
#1 in evening news and all news in general.
#1 in late night.
Network TV is not in danger of going away as long as there’s always the possibility of yet another recession in a capatlist economy and people actually have to give up cable, satellite, or even their internet because it’s too expensive. Free TV will always have a place.