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I’m told NBC Universal spent a whopping $10 million on Sunday’s two-hour opener for Kings and another $4 million per episode. That’s a staggering amount of money to lavish on any drama series, especially one that’s a bomb. By now you’ve seen the ratings reports about Kings pulling in horrible numbers — a 1.6 rating/4 share in 18-49 demgraphics, and 6 million viewers overall. (ABC’s heavy hitter Desperate Housewives was No. 1 from 9PM to 10PM.) Nor does Jeff Zucker have anyone to blame but himself for this disaster. Because I hear that Ben Silverman was hands-on. Remember, please, that Ben’s predecessor at NBC Entertainment, Kevin Reilly, passed on it. But Ben picked up the script and ran with it. Some thought it should have been a mini-series, but Ben said no. Others thought the modernized Bible retelling should have had more backstory, and at one point Silverman ordered the writers to make it “more real world”. So he told them to work up a cockamamie scenario whereby the Allies never won World War II, and America went bankrupt afterwards, which meant no oil out of the Middle East, so Mexico got rich, and then… Ugh, does anybody give a shit? It was scrapped anyway.
Kings was supposed to move into the Thursday 10 PM ER slot (once coveted when the network was still Must-See TV) but has now been banished to Sunday at 8 PM where it can’t do any harm since no one is watching NBC that night anyway. This latest failure follows NBC’s derivative restaurant reality series The Chopping Block also receiving a pathetic 4 share in 18-to-49 demos for its debut Wednesday. No wonder Ben has less and less to do with programming — which was why he was hired in the first place — and more and more to do with liaising with advertisers. (Even though that job is well below his pay grade.) I have a thought: to improve his performance, NBC Universal should rebrand Silverman as Ben SYlverman. That’s more likely than Zucker ever admitting he made a mistake hiring him in the first place.
ZUCKERED: SciFi Channel And Website To Waste Money Being Rebranded As “Syfy”
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Hey, Jen @ 9:36.
I got news for you, just as much as the Internet, the reason for network TV dying is that comment you made… “prolly too high concept for the midwest hicks”? Really? I mean this in the nicest way possible but… FUCK YOU.
It’s thinking that you are right on that stupid line of thought that limits not just creativity but quality. Just ’cause you are in LA doesn’t mean you have more a clue as to the “midwest hicks”.
So go to your keyboard and just go create some good entertainment. But the “midwest hicks” respond to something good. You haven’t been able or willing to give it to them.
Oh, and they aren’t too lazy to spell out “probably”. I guess that whiz-bang, high-speed LA lifestyle of yours just prevents you from getting it out.
the show did little to hit my interest. I think mostly because it didn’t show the power of democracy really physically changing the path to the future. (ie, NYC looks the same but with a ton of flags… technology looks the same, etc, etc)
When are networks going to turn to mini-series (where audiences know the beginning and end) with better writers / talent. Most people I know would buy John Adams in a second… but the 2nd season of Heroes (which I was beginning to lose interest in? ) Not so much.
Go with the flow of ADD culture. It’s the only way to compete against reality television.
It’s a high concept show, but THEY NEVER TOLD VIEWERS what it was about. I didn’t hear the concept ’til I saw Ian McShane on Tavis Smiley. And who the fuck watches Tavis Smiley?
A note to Jen, who wrote:
“The show goes completley against Americana thinking. Prolly too high concept for the midwest hicks.”
You know what? You’re an elitist jackass. Those supposed “midwest hicks” – who don’t actually exist anymore, as any demographer will tell you – is also known as “the audience.”
You can make yourself feel good and comfy and smug in Hollywood (which is where I live and work btw), but a comment like yours is proof that cheap condescending ignorance isn’t defined by zip code.
If Kings were on a cable station it would have been a hit. It had it’s rough moments, like every opening episode, but overall, it was imaginative and at its best mesmerizing. Not all the credit can go to the performance of Ian McShane, but most of it should.
I thought the show bordered on brilliant.
I dvr’d & finally got to watch it. I thought it had an interesting plot. I agree with some of the other comments, it is hard to get a bunch of people to sit down and watch any show these days. Plus with all the choices. Alos, I think it’s a great idea about going the mini-series way. It puts a specific time/date to show; you can budget for your advertising better & prolly get better more advertising for your $$. it’s like a week of “movie” watching.
just have to be sure the plots & stories are what the viewers want.
What do the Evangelical right winged sect have to say about this series????
From Jen:
“The show goes completley against Americana thinking. Prolly too high concept for the midwest hicks.”
Hey Jen – you live in a town where people think it’s normal to bleach their poop chutes and use coke as casually as beer.
See how it easy that was? Jerk.
I saw Silverman talk about this in September a the NYTVF… and he was very proud of it. Not just because he thought it was good, which he didn’t dwell on at all… but because he said it was basically bought and paid for by a single sponsor (GM?) who had approached them and that basically it didn’t have to rate to be a financial success…
A couple times he said “people keep talking about the ratings, I don’t care about the ratings – I only care about the bottom line”
I was intrigued by the promos but I decided against watching it? Why?? Because I get tired of investing time in a new TV show only to get it yanked. I get the feeling that I’m not the only one which explains why so few new shows are hits.
The networks are killing themselves by not allowing an audience to develop. Nowadays, it’s either get top ratings from the premiere show or get canceled. Thankfully, the executives at NBC weren’t around during its “Must See TV” days or else we wouldn’t have had such classic sitcoms as “Cheers” or “Seinfeld” – both of which were considered bombs at first due to their initial low ratings.
Nikki, Sometimes you seem a little too happy when things go bad. I hate Silverman – he’s an idiot. But the show was pretty good and it’s nice to see the network actually do something that’s interesting.
So please, Nikki. Watch it with the schadenfreude.
Thanks!
ps. who was the guy above who thought Fringe was good? was he joking?
The show got a 1.6 rating in 18-49 demo so at that price tag NBC will have to cancel it.
Too bad they don’t have the decency to cancel Ben Silverman as well!
I really enjoyed the show. The problem in my mind was the marketing campaign which was terrible. Actually worse than terrible, it was horrific, a an abomination. Everywhere you went in Los Angeles you saw these Kings posters with the butterfly, but NO ONE understood what the fuck they meant. The posters did not build excitement for the show. Actually, no one just cared about them. THe marketing people were like LETS BE VIRAL AND NOT TELL THEM ANYTHING. Worst marketing campaign I have seen in a long time. It failed miserably. Maybe this show will do well on dvd.
@ killian
not sure you know the meaning of the word “pithy”…or are you slamming the casting, while alternately, praising the script?
“It’s a high concept show, but THEY NEVER TOLD VIEWERS what it was about.”
Exactly. The marketing was self-conscious and took pains to avoid explaining that it was a modern retelling of David and Goliath. The promos basically said “Watch this whatever-it-is about something or other.”
Ouch, Nikki. This railing against Ben Part 10 on your part is pretty half baked. I would agree with some that the actors were for the most part, underwhelming, but Ian McShane (acting in a world and at a level all his own) is worth everything. To try and use the Desperate Housewifes argument for this being a failure is more than transparent. The television, for network, was bold in concept and often in execution. The problem with everything is the costs associated with it and other network shows. Everyone needs to get with the program and understand that the economcis have changed, irretreivably for those who lived high on the hog for so long reaping absurd fees at a time when every ad dollar went to the networks. When that pilot casts 4 to 5M and an episode is 2-2.5M then the economics will start to crunch. Can’t fault Ben for the creative on this one, but you can fault him for throwing too much dough into the mix and for really not promoting the show creatively enough to sustain the hit Despereate Housewifes (a show that has been on the air for too long and has too many oddly devoted viewers) was going to put on the 2nd hour.
To Charles J:
No, KINGS most definitely did not win the 8pm hour. A reality show in its 14th season (AMAZING RACE) won followed by EXTREME HOME MAKEOVER. KINGS was a distant third in total viewers and 4th in demos behind THE SIMPSONS.
This show was DOA before the 9pm hour.
Oh, Jen Jen Jen.
I have lived in the East, I have lived in the Midwest, and I now live in the West. Each region has pros and cons.
In the East, pros are strong family connection and cons are waaay too much emphasis on status (where did he go to school? What type of family did they come from? etc).
In the Midwest, pros are people are really really nice and frankly the most subversive (I’ll take Chicago hipster cred over LA/NY hipster cred any day of the week) and the big fat con is the weather.
In the West, pro is everyone gets a chance to reinvent themselves – it doesn’t matter who you are, it matters how hard you hustle. Steve Lopez called LA “the great second-chance city” and he was right. Cons?
THE IDIOTS FROM THE EAST AND THE MIDWEST WHO MOVED HERE TO WORK IN HOLLYWOOD AND THINK THEY ARE SMARTER THAN EVERYONE ELSE.
Go home, Jen.
Network TV, as a whole, isn’t dead – but NBC is. Even Jerry Bruckheimer couldn’t score a win with “E-Ring” on NBC, but if it had been on another network it would no doubt still be in production.
“Parks and Recreation” looks promising, but with NBC’s propensity to dork their shows and schedules around it probably won’t fly either. “Kings” is dead – long live the King.
I actually thought KINGS was one of the most original and nuanced shows I’ve seen on network TV in ages. It would have been great on HBO or FX, and I give NBC a lot of credit for trying something high-brow. The misstep here was programming it at 8pm on a Sunday, which in my opinion squandered the opportunity to launch a quality serious drama.
This show is not innovative and daring. It has the same dumbass cliches we’ve seen in every show.
Powerful old white men.
Handsome young white men.
Subservient women and blacks.
A msgic negro reverend.
A weak cowardly homosexual.
This show has a wonderful high concept that was poorly serviced by slavish devotion to the same out-dated stereotypes. What’s killing TV is not writers, it’s executives who live in these lily-white worlds and can’t see beyond them.
This is how we die, people.
This is how we die.
Real Deal Camille is dead on when speaking about NBC. NBC is a disaster. If NBC truly believed that Kings was to be something with the network can take pride, the show would have premiered the day after the Beijing Olympics ended. Yes, there was the Democratic National Convention in Denver, and yes Billary was speaking that night, but they had two hours to fill before the convention.
What should have been done is that NBC should have promoted Kings almost every other segment during the last days of Olympic programming touting it as the next great series. There are only two reasons why that didn’t happen. Ben was in China throughout the games as reported by Nikki, and Jeff Zucker likely hated the show meaning that Kevin Reilly likely passed only to stay in Jeff’s good graces.
Yes, this organization is a disaster. When you have Jon Stewart saying that he would have made $1 million by investing in stocks touted by CNBC, if he started with $200 million, your network and organization has become a total joke. For what I believe should be done with CNBC and General Electric, click the link in my name.
I think the smartest comments posted here have been about the return of the mini-series, esp. for broadcast TV. It’s about EVENTS – and “KINGS” could’ve been a ten-parter with a real arc (after all, David does become king and guess what? leaves it to HIS son too). Perhaps open-ended storylines belong to sappy med dramas (and a few exceptions like “HOUSEWIVES” – tho even Cherry did a big reboot) and the rest of the episodic TV can be left to crime with it’s Wheel of Fortune self-contained puzzles.
I still beleive that the vast majority of America is still mentally programed to watch the new shows in the fall. All other programing, aligned with the summer rerun mode, is still considered “step children” and do not warrent a mass sampling. This is compounded by trying a high concept this late in the big three season.
All the people saying the show failed because “nobody watches network TV”…what bullshit, that’s why CBS can break a piece of mediocrity like THE MENTALIST? KINGS is overblown nonsense that nobody wants to watch and Zucker/Silverman have destroyed the brand beyond repair.
‘Jen’ – your insecurities as I’m sure a former ” midwest hick” yourself are glaring. And if you’re over 21 and write this way, said insecurities are quite warranted.