We'll have to include "It was produced in the wrong language!" in the international version of our fan excuse bingo cards.
In its debut on German television Sunday night, Emmy-winning comedy "30 Rock" scored a 0.0 rating, meaning fewer than 5,000 viewers tuned in.
via THR.com.
Alec Baldwin…enough said.
Well…I guess 30 Rock fans can’t use the “But it does so well internationally” excuse… Ouch!
No, no, no, it scored a 9, not nein!
Seriously, Germans? Hasselhoff.
Holly – All we fans have is “Arrested Development like critical acclaim” and multiple emmy nominations. The show will likely never do well in the ratings but I still think its strong enough to air at 8:00. It will do better than Community in that slot.
To be fair, it was relaunching a network that didn’t seem to have any success in its relaunch. While I can’t imagine 30 Rock being a hit in Germany no matter what, this seems like a failure of a new network to market itself correctly, than a failure of 30 Rock alone.
(But, it is a good thing that there’s no danger of 30 Rock being canceled, at least until Baldwin quits in 2012.)
Edit: Dan, 30 Rock performs better than Community was at 9:30. NBC will never move it to 8, where it would fail miserably. They care far more about 30 Rock than a show they will don’t own and wasn’t doing too hot at 9:30 anyway.
Good. I hate this show. Nice to know at least one country has their senses.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Hillarious.Made my day.2 Words…Bad Promotion.30 Rock may be a good show but SERIOUSLY.5000 People watched it.Germany need to invest more in International Shows.
Can`t help but let it all out.
Julia – I guess thats true. It seems that NBC cares more about holding up 9-10 than developing a new comedy. Community seems to perform the same where ever it goes but I still think NBC will keep it around (due to good critical reviews)
Seinfeld fell flat in a lot of European countries too
their loss
Humour differs from country to country, 30 Rock may be critically acclaimed and have awards by the buckets but it’s going to struggle as the humour is too niche. The shows that have been successful are Friends, Two and a Half Men, Simpsons etc In the past, shows like The Nanny were very popular in Europe and places like Australia.
Robert knows that as head of the “lunatic fringe” movement, I usually only talk on the late night forums. But I will always take a shot at Talentless Tina Fey whenever I get the chance. Her and Alec Baldwin (who I only like because he likes tennis) headline the most overrated cast in television history. If only her loverboy Fallon was on it too it would be even worse.
You know if they changed the title to something else it might have been more successful, like 30 Stein Yankees. Stein is rock in German and can also be a beer stein, which might appeal to them more. And I dont think Tina Fey is talentless I think she’s done fabulous work on 30 Rock
Some sort of stand has to be established for me. What’s the average rating for shows in Germany?
If it was in a cable channel what is the surprise?
This version aired last month in the 4th portuguese network aroun 11:30 pm and don’t did great but did in line with that network, with a average of 100.000 viewers.
It’s never been a hit here in the UK and was axed by the mainstream channel Five due to low ratings. We don’t have an equivalent show to the likes of Saturday Night Live so the premise doesn’t translate & a lot of the jokes don’t travel. You need to know American culture for the show to really strike a chord imo.
They shouldve aired the bratwurst episode.
I’m Australian and LOVE 30 Rock, but to be fair its very Americanised humor it doesn’t suprise me it failed over there; Here it doesn’t air untill 11.30pm at night! Which is late, obviously but manages to still rate fairly well for its timeslot! Wish it would get bought forward to an early timeslot even if only throughout summer! Meh I resort to other means anyway
@ JayS
Your average imported primetime show (like Desperate Housewives, Lost, Law and Order) is watched by about 2 million Germans. A hit like CSI or House is watched by up to six million. Germany does not have a ratings system like Nielsen and uses marketshares in the target demos. Everthing above 5% in 18-49 is okay, House can and will do up to 30% on a good day without competing soccer games.
As Mike has already said, for a channel like Five in the UK to cancel a show means it’s either a really bad show or people just don’t “get” it. Have to say, I’d fall into the latter category as I found the first few episodes just not that funny at all.
However, a lot of American culture shows have been really successful this side of the pond. Most notably Cheers, Frasier and the ratings juggernaut that was Friends which, iirc, was so popular in its heyday that it was responsible for the only times Channel 4 beat BBC1, BBC2 and ITV. Which for UK people was staggering as nothing had ever given the “big three” a run for their money before.
These days, most of the good American shows go to Channel 4/E4 and Sky One (part of the Fox network) and these days we’re awed by House (starring our very own Hugh Laurie) when we’re not laughing our socks off to The Big Bang Theory, which has translated very well to European audiences. So well in fact, that Italian fans of TBBT have actually complained about the translations not being good enough!