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Speaking of NBC Universal, (and don’t we all?) the media gave a lot of attention to boss Jeff Zucker’s remarks about Jon Stewart vs Jim Cramer. But many outlets missed the most amazing part of Zucker’s presentation to the McGraw Hill Media Summit last week. According to Media Daily News, Zucker officially surrendered in the fight for his network to be No. 1 in primetime. ”What does No. 1 in prime time mean anymore?” he asked, adding that the traditional measuring stick has lost relevance and that, because of DVRs, online video and other factors, a more appropriate metric is aggregate viewing across on-air, online, VOD, iTunes, etc — a gauge where the NBC low-rated critical hit The Office performs well. “I don’t think we’ll ever be able to say, ‘NBC is No. 1 in prime time,’” Zucker said.
Zucker also acknowledged that any aspirations to be No. 1 were effectively thrown out when NBC made the decision to strip Jay Leno weeknights at 10 PM since ratings there won’t approach even those of low-rated scripted shows currently airing. Instead, Zucker is now comparng his network not to CBS or ABC, but to Fox which has 7 fewer hours of programming to fill. “I don’t think anyone thinks Fox is any less of a network because they program two hours in prime time.” Zucker acknowledged that NBC may not have taken the gamble if prime-time ratings were healthy. ”Sometimes, you see the world more clearly when you’re flat on your back,” he said. ”We can bury our heads in the sand, and then I’ll know we’ll be defeated.”
Zucker said NBC Universal “first and foremost” now is a cable-network business which, since it derives revenues from more stable affiliate fees as well as advertising, is on target for record ratings and financial performance in 2009.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Nikki, We didn’t miss it.
tvbythenumbers.com/2009/03/19/zucker-gives-up-i-dont-think-well-ever-be-able-to-say-nbc-is-no-1-in-prime-time/14870
What a moron. Turning his network into AM radio.
Is there a stranger oxymoron than “low-rated hit”?
I saw it at TVBytheNumbers, but they didn’t source it; it never said where this happened. So, it’s good smeone stayed with it to figure out this actually did happen and where. What the heck all went on at this summit that you could say something that outrageous and people get blah about it. Oh yeah, it’s NBC we’re talking about. For a network that was once Cosby/Cheers/Hill Street Blues, my have the times and goals changed.
How can the shareholders stomach comments like that?
He seriously need to be replaced.
its about the $$$, that is how every network is measured in reality. and he’s right: winning prime time doesnt matter and it certainly doesnt guarantee you the most profitable network. if you believe that PT is that critical in the bigger network scheme, i have a bridge to sell you. winning across all distribution channels does. thats why its important for SAG to get this deal right. this will set the benchmark for the future. there is money in all this digital media, maybe not today, but certainly in the very near future. and you can bet NBC has its eye on that right now. i think NBC is making a lot of the right moves. while not creatively popular, i assure you the shareholders, who are financially vested, appreciate the moves.
The second rule of show-biz success is that you never give up trying to be #1.
The first rule is that you never, ever, tell people that you’ve given up.
But it does show a mind-set in Hollywood’s top management that success or failure doesn’t matter as long as they can still hold onto their high-paying jobs.
I dislike Zucker as much as the next guy, and maybe more, since he canceled a show I was on (with middling ratings). Yet while I admit that he’s taken a network diamond and turned it into some kind of QVC diamonique, he might actually be right in that network TV, in its current format, is dying out, and the only way to move forward as an entertainment corporation is to expand out and cast a wider net. Not that he should kill off NBC for it — which he does seem to be doing — but the core concept might be right, arrogant assholishness notwithstanding.
Ew, I can’t believe I just sort of defended Jeff Zucker. I must wash now.
Ok, I agree with the comment above that you never ever give up trying to be No. 1, and you never ever tell anyone that you’ve given up trying to be No. 1.
That’s how a run on a bank happens. People leave in droves when they hear that you’re not trying to be the best in customer service, stability, looking successful. They pull their money out in droves. And that is what will happen with NBC, in the sense of viewers fleeing in droves for other more “committed” and “stable” networks… like ABC and CBS.
ABC and CBS seem to be trying to hang on to their traditional spots in television, and WANT it, in spite of Nu Media. And I think they will be rewarded for it in the long term.
Goodbye NBC. Zucker killed you with his “we’re glad to be adequate” philosophy.
Somebody please explain how this man still has a job?
Next up, NBC starts selling 10 hours a week of primetime to infomercials. (A network friend once crunched the numbers, and said it would be more profitable to sell airtime to HSN and infomercial companies than do traditional programming, although I guess there are licensing issues with that.)
WriterFella,
You have a solid point, but so does Furious D. I worked at a broadcast network for many years, and certainly we had lots of strategy meetings to figure out how to stay relevent in a world of DVRs and media players and downloads and all that crap. Certainly the projections for future demographics were dire. But Furious D is right – it’s SHOW BUSINESS and a true showman never admits defeat, always tries to be #1. Leslie Moonves took CBS from #4 to #1 in five years, and publicly, he never admitted a moment’s doubt that he would be successful. And Fox proved that a monster cultural phenom like American Idol (love it or hate it) does make broadcast tv relevent.
You aren’t wrong, and I do believe broadcast tv will someday be a distant relic, but until they hold the funeral, you owe it to your employees and shareholders and audience to at least keep trying.
Writerfella –
You could argue the reverse, that Network TV, in a prolonged recession/depression, is even more important than the new media and online stuff.
Think about it. Network TV delivers over-the-air broadcasts to everyone in the country. Households are burdened with debt, facing decades of declining real purchasing power and wages, and huge inflationary pressures that kill consumer spending (Obama is printing money).
The first thing to go is Cable. After that, internet. Which in any case is not useful at speeds today for anything more than half-hour Southpark/Office episodes. Internet speeds will take DECADES to increase because of the investment needed, and the extreme unlikely chance of low interest rates during inflationary spending.
Zucker is not thinking clearly. His move is perfect for 2000-2006. Now, in the start of the deep recession, it’s stupidity squared.
CBS, with broadly appealing, four-quadrant shows like “The Mentalist” or “Eleventh Hour” which are to be honest derivative stuff from the Bruckheimer factory, makes money EVEN IN THIS DEPRESSION. Ad revenue for CBS declined something like 50% over last year and they still made money.
Zucker’s bet only makes sense if you think consumer spending will be robust enough to support ever-increasing cable fees, and internet fees. When there are cheaper “free” Over-the-Air alternatives. [Wal-Mart and McDonalds are the only major retailer and restaurant chain to post profits this year, respectively.]
I just don’t see how consumer income thus spending makes Zucker’s bet a winning one. I’d hope GE gets someone else who sees the obvious: serve a broad audience, do the basics right, no magic bullet or Deus Ex Machina of New Media or Cable, just solid shows.
Bonus: Whoever programs original content on Saturday Night, three hours worth, for “date night at home” is going to win big. Believe me.
Tick tock baldy, tick tock.
Sheesh. Zucker is right – whenever I push the ‘guide’ button on my remote I never check to see what is on NBC because there is no ‘there’ there. Two hours of ‘Celebrity Apprentice’? I don’t think so. ‘Law and Order’ every night? Uh-uh. ‘Chuck’? Who?
Zucker is solely responsible for the demise of NBC. He can try to assert that technology changes are too hard for him to overcome, but one only needs to check CBS and FOX to see that his words are just whiny drivel.
One way to be #1 in Prime Time, as NBC once knew, is to appeal to the demographic that doesn’t (for the most part) look for alternative viewing sources. No one wants to program for that demographic anymore because they don’t have capital to buy stuff.
I’m not talking about elderly Luddites. I’m talking about children. Shows that families with children can watch together used to be the mainstay of prime time (and I’m convinced this is the reason that such mindless drivel as American Idol and DWTS are ratings winners).
From Gunsmoke to The Cosby Show, shows with mass-audiences included children in their audience in large numbers. And most families with children know who controls the remote in the household.
When I look at NBC now, I don’t think there one show on that network that children would like.
(I’m not talking about the craptastic children’s programming on niche networks like Disney or Nick or the snoozefests of banal “family-friendly” shows, which are didactic and/or borderline-offensive.)
I’m talking about entertaining shows that have simple-enough plots for children to follow and yet are sophisticated enough in character and thematic development for adults in the family to enjoy as well.
I think there’s still a viable business model in this–the children in the 80s who were watching The Facts of Life, The Cosby Show, and The Golden Girls, were the young adults in the 90s watching Seinfeld and Friends. Habits are established young. When prime time became a desert for programming with child appeal in the 90s, those children went to the niche networks and increasingly the Internet for entertainment. Now, those young adults don’t turn in to prime time (and not just because of technological change) in the numbers young adults once did.
The network prime time model is easiest for everyone. The programming comes to the viewer; the viewer doesn’t have to seek it out. There are generations of couch potatoes in training who are waiting to be programmed to, who think having to type in a URL or learning about whatever the newest shows on the 2-digit+ tiers of their cable service is just too much work.
oh this is just pathetic, now that he has surrendered, fire that midget already!
Forest Gump said it best: Stupid is as stupid does. Now it’s time for Leno to make jokes about Zucker on the Tonight show.
Umm, well, technically he might be right–he should have phrased it “We USED to be No.1, in Prime Time” but that brings up WHY they aren’t No.1 anymore…doubt he would have done that.
OK, being optimistic (delusional), maybe when he says “we’ll…”, he means that he and his are out the door, and if there is ever a turnaround at the peacock it won’t be him getting the credit.
Hey, I can dream, can’t I???
I don’t think we’ll ever be able to say, “Jeff Zucker knows what he’s doing”, at least not with a straight face…
Here’s what I don’t understand about the whole ‘death’ of broadcast TV argument.
If you have stuff that people don’t want to watch on broadcast TV, then what on earth would make you think that they would be any more likely to watch that same unwatchable stuff in any other format?
Seriously, if it’s junk then I don’t care to watch it on TV or the Internet.
For all their successes in primetime, I seriously doubt CBS, ABC, and FOX are IGNORING the coming onslaught of mew media markets. Trust me, when those non-traditional mediums become profitable you can bet NBC won’t be the only one making money. Zucker is just making excuses and distracting from the fact that his network sucks, and it’s his (and Silverman’s) fault.
I wonder what the parent company and the stockholders think about this? I find it difficult to understand why anyone would pay big bucks to a person who has decided that number two, or three, or even worse is OK? I do know one thing from martial arts…if you enter the ring thinking you can not win, you won’t. So much for excellence in entertainment and business plan.
@ Whiskey,
Very good post. I totally agree.
Zucker should be fired but then again so should his boss Immelt.
It’s been my feeling they have both been circling the drain for years but yet they are still here.