The dire state of NBC

Richard Dower

When the New York Times writes about the pathetic network that is NBC you wonder wtf heads don't roll and someone gets fired?....pretty good piece here, worth a read:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/25/business/media/nbcs-ratings-plummet-from-first-to-worst.html?ref=television

Mr E

Kind of scary that The Talking Dead (a post mortem chat show after every Walking Dead episode) is beating anything NBC are putting out.

Cable is kicking ass at the moment.

johnny_ultimate

The fact that the endlessly mediocre, vapid Walking Dead (and its silly talk show) can grab higher ratings than the consistently inspired Parks & Recreations is depressing.

pixelburp

Jeez, I didn't even know about that talk-show dedicated to Walking Dead; what on earth do they even find to talk about: is this a common thing in the US now? What a bizarre idea.

johnny_ultimate

pixelburp wrote: »

Jeez, I didn't even know about that talk-show dedicated to Walking Dead; what on earth do they even find to talk about: is this a common thing in the US now? What a bizarre idea.

I'd like to think they conjure up the likeable, well-drawn and believable characters with credible motivations that the show itself doesn't offer, or have in-depth discussions about how much more interesting and ambitious the video game version is.

But it's probably just high-fiving each other about how awesome the preceding show was and feigning interest about the various characters' fates. It is a really weird concept, but at the same time there's something oddly apt about dull people arguing about a show about dull people arguing.

Sideshow Mark

pixelburp wrote: »

Jeez, I didn't even know about that talk-show dedicated to Walking Dead; what on earth do they even find to talk about: is this a common thing in the US now? What a bizarre idea.

Don't know about the US, but I was disappointed when they cancelled Dr Who Confidential on BBC3. I find the Game Of Thrones aftershow on Sky is quite watchable too. I guess geeks love detail.

Richard Dower

pixelburp wrote: »

Jeez, I didn't even know about that talk-show dedicated to Walking Dead; what on earth do they even find to talk about: is this a common thing in the US now? What a bizarre idea.

Falling Skies has the same type of post show, Teen Wolf has one as well.

pixelburp

Sideshow Mark wrote: »

Don't know about the US, but I was disappointed when they cancelled Dr Who Confidential on BBC3. I find the Game Of Thrones aftershow on Sky is quite watchable too. I guess geeks love detail.

At least Confidential was - in effect - a Makings-Of for the episode just aired, which is always a potentially watchable prospect. This idea of a talk-show around a drama, particularly one that has been so ... (wait for it) ... dead (oho!) just boggles the mind

Richard Dower wrote: »

Falling Skies has the same type of post show, Teen Wolf has one as well.

So it's just popular with utterly-garbage shows? The mind continues to boggle.

Technocentral

Thats a pity because growing up it was the home of all my favourite US shows, from Star Trek (in re runs when I was a kid), through Cheers, Frasier and of course Seinfeld in comedy, plus Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere, Homicide: Life On The Streets, La Law etc, but TV has changed so much recently and the likes of HBO, AMC and Starz (and of course increasingly Netflix) are where all the great shows are coming out of now and not Network TV. I'd imagine that unlike the pay per view channels that I mentioned its hard for them to keep producing high quality shows with diminishing viewers and ad revenue.

squonk

I'm probably watching in isolation in that I'm not having to TiVo stuff this side of the pond but NBC does have some great shows right now so it's hard to believe things are so bad.

30 Rock - Just finished but had form
Grimm - always a fairly solid show. Not everyone's cuppa maybe but pretty good stuff
SNL - don't always get it myself but it's got form.
Chicago Fire - slow start but turning into a very solid and great series.
Parks & Recreation - THE DADDY! One of the greatest shows on TV right now. Has gone from strength to strength after a slowish first season. Many networks would kill to have a show like this on the roster.

On the downside there's Revolution (I mean, why even bother?). It's uninspired and pretty dull. Go On is not really lighting any fires either. I'd be happy to see this one go. I haven't seen Do No Harm but how bad was this? Two episodes is not enough to bed in a show.

It's sad that reality garbage like Biggest Loser and The Voice are seen as heavy hitters in the schedule.

Anyone watching the news yesterday no doubt saw Pat Rabbitte's proposal for a Broadcasting Charge per household to replace the TV Licence. If I have to pay for the content I watch (which is not mainly domestic content) then I'd be happy to pay to be counted as a rating for NBC shows that I do like, such as Grimm & Parks And Rec. This is a wider problem though. None of us are watching advertisments either. Very few of us are, I'm sure, officially watching the content we do watch. In worldwide terms, NBC is probably still a basket case but I'd be pretty sure the number of eyes worldwide glued to Grimm dwarfs the number glued to The Voice (if the Irish version is anything to go by).

Television Ratings and Licencing needs a big shake up but the problem is that it needs a bigger shakeup than anyone in the industry or the political sphere dares to give it.

stevenmu

Television Ratings and Licencing needs a big shake up but the problem is that it needs a bigger shakeup than anyone in the industry or the political sphere dares to give it.

The issue there is that if you shake things up the people currently on top may not end up on top, a shake up gives the people on the bottom a chance to leap ahead and opens things up for new players too. So the people on the top will resist a shake up as long as possible.

Tucker.Tim

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

The fact that the endlessly mediocre, vapid Walking Dead (and its silly talk show) can grab higher ratings than the consistently inspired Parks & Recreations is depressing.

Grandstand much?

You picked the worst moment you could ever find to try to lampoon The Walking Dead.

There's only one way to properly respond to your posts: :rolleyes:

deisedude

Tucker.Tim wrote: »

Grandstand much?

You picked the worst moment you could ever find to try to lampoon The Walking Dead.

There's only one way to properly respond to your posts: :rolleyes:

It may have improved but when I stopped watching at the season break of season 2 it was absolutely dire.

pixelburp

Tucker.Tim wrote: »

Grandstand much?

You picked the worst moment you could ever find to try to lampoon The Walking Dead.

There's only one way to properly respond to your posts: :rolleyes:

The Walking Dead TV series has some of the worst character writing around, at times defying belief and borderline amateur in execution; particularly when compared against the videogame adaptation, which has character depth, emotion, relatable people & an arc that structurally makes sense - in stark contrast to the writing-by-numbers the TV series operates under (though it does make you appreciate that even the most generic of scripting has value, when shows like Walking Dead can't even get that right)

I stopped after the recent mid-season début, frankly having had enough & given the show a fair chance; "endlessly mediocre, vapid" is being kind, it's a badly-written show that papers over its cracks by appealing to armchair-nihilists with a little zombie violence now & then.

lertsnim

Tucker.Tim wrote: »

Grandstand much?

You picked the worst moment you could ever find to try to lampoon The Walking Dead.

There's only one way to properly respond to your posts: :rolleyes:

The Walking Dead is pretty poor in fairness.

stevenmu

deisedude wrote: »

It may have improved but when I stopped watching at the season break of season 2 it was absolutely dire.

Funny you should mention that, that's exactly when it got better

It was dire before that, but it improved over the second half of season 2, and season 3 has mostly been brilliant stuff. There are some episodes and moments that hark back to how terrible it was, but mostly it's far far better than it used to be.

johnny_ultimate

Tucker.Tim wrote: »

You picked the worst moment you could ever find to try to lampoon The Walking Dead.

Any time is an easy time to lampoon the Walking Dead, really. For some reason (sheer boredom, probably) I'm up-to-date (well yet to watch this week's episode) and still think it is absolutely crippled by its horrible writing and characterisation. Season 3 has at least worked as some purely mindless entertainment, but I think the fact there is not a single well-defined, well-developed or - most vitally - sympathetic character on the show is unforgivable. Especially on one where we're supposedly meant to be encouraged to root for these people - frankly, I couldn't care less which one is zombie chow next (well, Daryl would be missed for a week or two). With a few exceptions, even the action is pretty standard fare. Every time two characters speak together that show effectively grinds to a halt - which, yeah, isn't really something I could say about any show I've ever liked. If you haven't played the game, do - it truly shows the TV show up as the unremarkable, frustrating mess that it is. There's probably two episodes in the entire run so far I'd consider any better than purely mediocre, and many I'd call straight-up awful. I wouldn't be watching it if any more of the shows I actually like were on air at the moment - I very much doubt I'll be back for season four, if apathy even allows me to make it to season three end.

I only say this as Parks & Recreations has the most brilliant, likeable and engaging ensemble of any TV show I've seen in recent years. Even in the more throwaway plots I just love spending time with those character. The writing is consistently strong and, of course, genuinely funny. Unfortunately, living here, I don't really have the opportunity to support that show the way I'd like to - relegated to graveyard slots (if even) on channels where even modest success would have no impact on its wider fortunes. Again, as shows like that struggle to attract even a cult audience, I think it's fair to be disappointed that a talk show based on the frickin' Walking Dead can attract higher ratings.

Richard Dower

Um, wow!....now this *has* to be embarrassing for NBC!....I suggest you read it, but a repeat of an old tv movie rated equal to NBC originals.........

http://insidetv.ew.com/2013/03/01/nbc-affiliate-matlock/
You know NBC’s ratings are bad when…

An affiliate decides to air a 21-year-old Matlock movie instead of the network’s Thursday night programming.

You know NBC’s ratings are really bad when…

Matlock‘s ratings are not much different than the regular shows.



Now if WKYC had aired Murder She Wrote, they might have really blown NBC out of the water.