Yes. But one that would be an excellent trend to continue. Scripted TV needs to prove it can hold its own where ever possible.
Be a part of the community.
It's free, join today!
Featured Reviews
-
Man on a Ledge plummets onto Blu-ray this week with an edition that presents the picture and sound as well as possible, along with a minimum of special features. The movie itself is hard to...
-
The most infamously unsuccessful movie at the box-office thus far in 2012 (though Battleship and Dark Shadows may give it some competition), Andrew Stanton’s John Carter mixes elements of...
-
What can I say? I love 3D! From the moment I began watching 3D content in my home I quickly discovered that I needed more content. I suspect that those of you just purchasing...
-
Smokey and the Bandit drives onto Blu-ray in a nice edition that can really take the viewer back to 1977 for 90 minutes of sheer moviemaking fun. The Blu-ray comes with the same HD transfer...
-
Monika Eriksson is one of the first antiheroines in the filmography of Ingmar Bergman. In Summer with Monika, she’s brash, effervescent, and completely captivating, that is, until the realities...
Leno moves nightly to primetime - Page 5
- Adam Lenhardt
- Location: Albany, NY
- online
- Joined: February 2001
- Posts: 12,205
- Select All Posts By This User

I don't know how, or if, it changes the conversation, but in this very interesting conversation I see an implicit mis-statement of who the customers and the products of the networks are. It's implied that we, the viewers, are the customers and the TV shows are the products.
That doesn't seem to be so. The networks' customers are the advertisers and the "product" is we-the-viewers. The content is the delivery service to get us to advertisers.
Networks are "simply" providers of eyeballs to their bill-paying advertisers. If they can't bring enough eyeballs to the advertisers they will go out of business, so long as they're in the advertising business.

Hindsight is always 20/20 of course, but I'm surprised I didn't "know" this was going to happen in advance. Maybe I'm simply so hopeful that Heroes will survive, do well, excel, etc., that I didn't really look at it objectively: Against House, Heroes is doomed, I think. I hope they give us a good wrap-up at the end of this Volume, because I fear it might be the last.
"House" is the number one show on television, but it's also helped by being on the number one network. The success of "House" will help "Lie to Me" grow when it premieres next week, which will in turn help the affiliates' local news broadcasts. Most of NBC's surviving "hits" date back to Kevin Reilly's tenure at NBC. When NBC dumped him for the disasterous Silverman, FOX swooped him up and he's worked his magic on a much bigger stage.
- Brian^K
- Brian
- Location: Burlington, MA
- offline
- Joined: June 2006
- Posts: 681
- Select All Posts By This User
Yes, you can be. Fox arguably is/does, at least if you're just counting scripted programming.
CBS might have comparable audience to Fox, but they spend far more to accomplish that feat. It's good thing, for CBS' execs, that the company is far more closely-held.
I'm sure NBC would love if they hadn't passed on house (which is an NBC/Universal production airing on Fox) but that's decision making for you :)
- Brian^K
- Brian
- Location: Burlington, MA
- offline
- Joined: June 2006
- Posts: 681
- Select All Posts By This User
- DaveF
- Location: Rochester, NY
- offline
- Joined: March 2001
- Posts: 10,418
- Reviews: 2
- Select All Posts By This User
- Brian^K
- Brian
- Location: Burlington, MA
- offline
- Joined: June 2006
- Posts: 681
- Select All Posts By This User
You can quibble about it, but money is money. Even if that number is inflated, there is still enough money to be made to make this change worthwhile to NBC.
But not because it is a lot of money: Rather strictly because the costs are too high, and the benefits are too low, for scripted programming.
- DaveF
- Location: Rochester, NY
- offline
- Joined: March 2001
- Posts: 10,418
- Reviews: 2
- Select All Posts By This User

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3ic1a340c9e2d852e5c71c767e50baa19c
You can quibble about it, but money is money. Even if that number is inflated, there is still enough money to be made to make this change worthwhile to NBC.
But not because it is a lot of money: Rather strictly because the costs are too high, and the benefits are too low, for scripted programming.
How this impacts affiliates is potentially even more devastating. In a small to medium sized market where an affiliate (back in the salad days of ER) may have been able to get $800-$1,000 for a local :30 second spot, they now could have to settle for as little as $75-$150 for that same ad. If an affiliate relies on that 10-11 p.m. ad revenue to help make its annual operating budget, the situation could get dire pretty quickly. How does the network make this revenue loss up to the affiliate? With more local avails? If so, where does that inventory come from? If it's a giveback from the network, then that's less ad money going to NBC. If they add more (or longer) commercial breaks to the show, that may further affect Jay's ability to compete.
I have a feeling repercussions of this "experiment" will be felt in ways NBC never counted on...and for years to come.
- Brian^K
- Brian
- Location: Burlington, MA
- offline
- Joined: June 2006
- Posts: 681
- Select All Posts By This User
One other problem... affiliates are finding their local news casts now have nearly worthless advertising rates. NBCU doesn't have to figure that into their national in/out, but local affiliates do, and if they aren't an NBCU owned affiliate (numerous) it's kind of bad.
Promoting how well they will do on Leno short sells the impact this entire change makes elsewhere. It also isn't a fair example because it says "here's how much profit we will make: $300M!" But it doesn't say "because scripted at a higher # was break even, $0 total gross after advertising revenue"
In fact, in week-after-week, "The Tonight Show" is down over 60% in ratings. and the Late Show is down over 50%.
Surprisingly, juts because you have a position of authority in a company doesn't make you a genious or all of your decisions correct.
But, on the good news front, I can now buy ad space during the NBC Nightly News local cast at less then I can pay TimeWarner for generic cable advertising. That's a first.
Conan fans would most likely never watch the local news, preferring to watch The Daily Show and record The Colbert Report for later viewing.
The way I see it, it may all come down to old vs young. Older people are more inclined to watch live broadcasts, while young people will be more inclined to record or download their favourite shows and watch them at their convenience. Do the Nielsen ratings even take this into consideration at all?
- Brian^K
- Brian
- Location: Burlington, MA
- offline
- Joined: June 2006
- Posts: 681
- Select All Posts By This User
In the end, do keep in mind that ratings are falling, precipitously, overall. People are simply watching less television (a recent study showed a remarkable spike in Internet activity, just as one example of where attention previously aimed at television is clearly moving to), and spreading their television watching over a larger number of channels. So attributing any decreases to solely one factor is ridiculous.
Your argument would be good except that other local markets aren't reporting a steep drop in the nightly news, or at least aren't reflected it in ad value.
And, while everyone talks up the daily show, there are a large group of people, in that "young parent" group and "local sports fan" group and "local weather" group who like seeing that content. Hell, the internet won't tell me anything about elementary school closings until a fair clip later then the local news.
While you may be right, it could be conan's fault, that still makes it NBC's fault.
Here's what happened:
They went from a weighted average 2.6 Share at 10PM to a hoped for 1.6.
They went from a 5 share for Tonight Show to a 2.
And a 3.1 Share for 12:30 to a 1.6 share.
How "profitable" a single show is to the network doesn't mean everything.. it may be paper profitable, true. Hell, they could run an infomercial and be wicked profitable to the network.
But the profit the show generates has to be gaged against what it made.
I'll take for example, Law & Order SVU last year, a 10PM slot show.
Let's say the ratings were "eh" but looking at Wiki and some google, it did about a 3.5share.. slightly over double what Leno gets.
So, let's say cost figured in it made the network a profit of $20M. So, that's one night a week. NBC also had two nights a week last year of airing "Dateline". "Dateline", a news program, is CHEAPER then Leno to produce. And, it gained slightly higher ratings (slightly, roughly the same right now) Dateline also had the perk of accomplishing the goal of meeting NBC's FCC Licensing requirements. So, NBC will still end up running Dateline here and there, it will now just drop into a timespot taken away from higher rating programming.
You add all of those things up, you see where the profit/loss for them last year was, and THEN you take Jay's $300M profit on the show. You probably make SOME money, but it's not as though you're $300M ahead of last year. And if The Tonight Show and Fallon continue to tank, the profitability made on that one show quickly gets swallowed up. If Vivendi thought that suddenly an extra $300M in over the line profit was being added in, I don't know if they'd be as quick to ramp up this sell of their 20% stake.
Ratings in general are down as more choices are out there. But NBC cannot be leading the pack in a super-fast bullet run to the floor while their competition holds / gains ground off their losses.
- DaveF
- Location: Rochester, NY
- offline
- Joined: March 2001
- Posts: 10,418
- Reviews: 2
- Select All Posts By This User
And I'm still hoping someone can explain to me the salad bar "gag" with Leno and PeeWee Herman. It's like they set up a joke and forgot the punchline.

* Large companies act like idiots routinely; definitely from a longer-term, looking perspective and sometimes from an it's-obvious-to-the-peons perspective. They demonstrably do not consider the long term repurcussions of their actions; or at least don't care because short-term incentives are too large.(Lehman Brothers and AIG, who clearly didn't think through "all the implications and possibilities" of their business plans) And I think it's not uncommon to be driven by internal power struggles as much as reasoned planning. (GM devolving Saturn from a game-changer to a normal auto shop due to attacks frgom other GM businesses.)
- Brian^K
- Brian
- Location: Burlington, MA
- offline
- Joined: June 2006
- Posts: 681
- Select All Posts By This User
I don't know what's up with the need to insult people, but I haven't seen anyone here say something that is completely unsupportable through current widely available data or anecdotal evidence. While I prefer the empirical evidence as a means to justify my claims, I haven't seen anyone say something, including yourself that cannot be reasonably argued.
So, it'd probably be good to knock of the ad hominems.
- Brian^K
- Brian
- Location: Burlington, MA
- offline
- Joined: June 2006
- Posts: 681
- Select All Posts By This User
I think you should take your advice to heart: Recognize and acknowledge that large companies don't regularly act like idiots. Recognize and acknowledge that the needs of consumerists need to be balanced with the needs of investors, and the needs of taxpayers, and the needs of employees, and the needs of communities, etc. The extremism you've put forward against the networks is the root of the problem.
Quote:
[quote]It is strange to see you write that given that my comments directly mirrored your own, just with a different, indeterminate set of people as the target. You have a double-standard: The people you want to insult, it is okay to insult them, but the people you like, it isn't okay to insult them.
I think you should take your advice to heart: Recognize and acknowledge that large companies don't regularly act like idiots. Recognize and acknowledge that the needs of consumerists need to be balanced with the needs of investors, and the needs of taxpayers, and the needs of employees, and the needs of communities, etc. The extremism you've put forward against the networks is the root of the problem.
I think you may be reading something into what I'm saying. All of us here, in every thread, criticize and chastise television programs which we don't like, we comment when a show seems to be going downhill. That is the nature of being a consumer. And, you can disagree with everything we think. And, you've been a good advocate of the point of view of the network, though it's one many here disagree with.
But no one in this thread, to my following, has ever referred to you personally in negative tones or used ad hominem directed against you. We've addressed an argument we don't agree with.
As far as insulting NBC, we don't have to, media buyers are doing that for us. Law & Order SVU went down from a 3.8/share last year to a 2.6 last night. If it was losing money at 10PM with a 3.8, then I don't see how it's doing any better where it is now.
But while I chastise NBC for what I feel is a short sighted plan that in the longterm hurts - far more then if they just ran Dateline 3 nights a week and some reality program 2 (JMHO),
As is pointed out above, large business make errors. We make errors. Everyone makes errors. But the expression of what we think about the judgement of a company is something everyone can voice their own thoughts about.
But no one on this side of the argument is calling individuals who we know here as anything for expressing their opinion. I'm glad you have your opinion. I just think you're wrong. And I say this not as someone who hates the networks. Hell, I have GE stock, I hope they do well.
I'm saying this not as someone crabby and bitchy about my viewpoint.
I believe companies don't regularly act like idiots. I think in the bevy of programming available on cable and networks, you're seeing several networks who are being absolute genious in their programming choices and making splashes which have helped them be far more profitable. Bravo has turned cheap reality shows into drama that draws advertisers and eyeballs, while putting forward reality-game shows that get big (for cable) ratings. SyFy has been the king of developing incredibly cheap serialized drama like "Warehouse 13" and "Eureka" both of which, per episode, are less then $1M, which is breakthrough dollar range for their worth.
There are several networks even under the Universal header that are trying unique things and making a go at it.
I just don't buy into NBC's strategy. Sorry. But that doesn't make me a self centered idiot. And it doesn't mean I'm not thinking of it as an investment strategy, or how the network can see it.
Zucker made it clear last year that he thinks NBC is done "trying to be #1" and he wants to be profitable on the ground. And that's fine. Only time will tell longterm how this plays out. But if NBC finds things going the same direction - Jay profitable while the Tonight Show loses ground and it's previous network programming has big drops in rating #s while other networks see ratings hold steady, then I don't know how he can call it a "success", from any measuring stick.
- DaveF
- Location: Rochester, NY
- offline
- Joined: March 2001
- Posts: 10,418
- Reviews: 2
- Select All Posts By This User
- Brian^K
- Brian
- Location: Burlington, MA
- offline
- Joined: June 2006
- Posts: 681
- Select All Posts By This User
I don't agree, though, that blatant and unchecked consumerism is necessarily a good thing. No perspective ever deserves an unrebutted soap-box. Such destructive constructs inextricably lead to some folks getting the idea that such a one-sided perspective should actually prevail. It justifies, in the minds of folks who lose sight of the balance, assumptions and unfounded expectations, which themselves drive even more and deeper levels of disappointment and dissatisfaction. I see nothing positive coming out of such a thing.
Quote:
I appreciate that.
Quote:
As have I. I suspect your negative reaction to what I've written makes you think you've seen ad hominem attacks from me. You're mistaken. I've responded in-kind -- exactly mirroring the context of the comments being responded to.
Quote:
Many of the assertions here project the message that everything a consumer doesn't like is something that a large business did wrong. That extremism is ridiculous (literally). Expect that each time you assert that someone else has made a mistake, that there is someone who disagrees, and that their perspective is worthy of being presented to directly counter your own.
Quote:
Ditto.
- Brian^K
- Brian
- Location: Burlington, MA
- offline
- Joined: June 2006
- Posts: 681
- Select All Posts By This User
I disagree. In my experience, including twenty years effectively comparing consumers' opinions about what is best for a business versus the business' opinions about what is best for the business, I can say with confidence that the percentage of times that the consumers were right and the businesses were wrong was remarkably small. Consumers tend to be maniacally focused on their own concerns, and very rarely have the professionalism, expertise, experience, insights, research data, and inclination to think about what's really best for the investors of a company... even consumers who are themselves investors and claim to have such perspective. Now, it's been ten years since I retired from that business, but if anything consumers have gotten more myopic, more self-motivated, more innately fearful and antagonistic towards large companies. People claim good reasons, but not objective reasons. They base their assertions on faulty assumptions, and on selected realms of consideration.
Do large businesses make mistakes? Occasionally, yes. More often, though, what consumerists choose to call "mistakes" are simply reasonable gambles that don't pan out. That's another indicator of the innate bias the colors the vast majority of curmudgeony. However, let's grant that very occasionally large businesses make mistakes: Are there occasions where consumers actually foresaw a correct decision? Almost never. That's not to say some curmudgeon might not have actually suggested an approach that might, coincidentally, have worked better, but that's not the same as making a better decision. That's simply rolling the dice and coming up with a winning roll. So effectively, the curmudgeons are claiming primacy because they put their chips on the right spot on the craps table, claiming that that was something other than different luck.
And it is all pointless. That's the really funny thing. It is pointless. What the consumers really are saying is that they wish something was different. They want something. They have a desire. They prefer something. They project that as a better business decision for the business simply to make it seem more important than it really is, implicitly saying that their own wishes, wants, desires, preferences are meaningless, worthless, etc. The projection of one's preference over the business decision of professionals actually tasked with the responsibility for making the best decisions for a business is most often just a reflection of a feeling of inferiority by the curmudgeon, so often the case that it is relatively safe making that assumption in practically all cases.
Consumers should be consumers. They should wish, they should want, they should desire, they should prefer.
Not sure about the new leno show because I didn't really watch the old one. Haha! He seemed personable with Pee Wee. He did good letting Pee Wee get the laughs. ...I didn't see the salad bar thing mentioned above. It wasn't included in the clip I saw. Sounds very "Lettermen"...or maybe daytime talk show material.
- DaveF
- Location: Rochester, NY
- offline
- Joined: March 2001
- Posts: 10,418
- Reviews: 2
- Select All Posts By This User
But I may be cynically colored from my own particular non-consumer driven sector.
(as for consumers knowing less than the businesses they criticize, I can believe that.)
I also caught the Green Car Challenge, I think it was. Middle aged men driving a Ford Focus slowly around a track while ping-pong balls are shot at them. The idea was funny. The execution was funny for the first 30 seconds, but then it dragged out for 10 more minutes. It's stuff I can enjoy in the background while getting ready for bed and don't want to bring up an NCIS or L&O on Tivo. It's not that it's good TV; it's amusing background noise. I don't want to root against Leno per se; but I hate seeing potentially great scripted TV killed for this.
- Brian^K
- Brian
- Location: Burlington, MA
- offline
- Joined: June 2006
- Posts: 681
- Select All Posts By This User
I suggest folks who hate this development start praying for another network to follow suit, because it seems increasingly obvious that Leno is going to last four or five years, at least, unless his audience is undercut by a strong and significant direct competitor in the same genre.
- Leno moves nightly to primetime
Recent Discussions
- › Ender's Game gets a movie deal 4 minutes ago
- › A fine whine....films you whined about but that have now gotten... 6 minutes ago
- › Pal Joey Blu-ray Review 16 minutes ago
- › While we wait for A few words about...™ Lawrence of Arabia -- in... 22 minutes ago
- › Star Trek Trivia (Series and Films) 23 minutes ago
- › Your Favorite Ten TV Shows of ALL Time 27 minutes ago
- › Is the b&w era of TV on DVD slowly coming to an end? 30 minutes ago
- › Double Features for a cinema or movie night. 34 minutes ago
- › What are your top 10 N64 games? 35 minutes ago
- › The Woman in Black Blu-ray Review 51 minutes ago
Recent Reviews
- › Man on a Ledge [Blu-ray] by Kevin EK
- › The Woman in Black (+ UltraViolet Digital Copy) [Blu-ray] by Richard Gallagher
- › John Carter (Four-Disc Combo: Blu-ray 3D/Blu-ray/DVD + Digital Copy) by MattH.
- › Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (Blu-ray 3D / Blu-ray / DVD /... by Ronald Epstein
- › Smokey and the Bandit [Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy]... by Kevin EK
- › Summer with Monika (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] by MattH.
- › The Jungle Bunch: The Movie by Kevin EK
- › Chronicle (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo +Digital Copy) by MattH.
- › Coriolanus [Blu-ray] by MattH.
- › Andrew Lloyd Webber's Love Never Dies [Blu-ray] by Kevin EK
New Articles
- › Harman Kardon Introduces a New Sound Bar... by nickvalluri
- › TruGreen by brand46
- › HTF Oscar Chat Prize List by Adam Gregorich
- › HTF AWARDS 2011 by Ronald Epstein
- › 2012 Home Theater Forum Meet Information by Ronald Epstein
- › HTF Official Blu Ray Review Archive Part 2 by Ronald Epstein
- › Robert Fowkes, HTF Moderator, 1942-2011 by Ronald Epstein
- › Blu-ray Previously Released Listing: #-D by Robert Crawford
- › Blu-ray Previously Released Listing: E-I by Robert Crawford
- › Blu-ray Previously Released Listing: J-P by Robert Crawford
About Home Theater Forum | Join the Community | HTF Chat | HTF Events | Advertise
© 2012 Home Theater Forum is powered by Huddler Tech | FAQ | Support | Privacy/TOS | Site Map





