NBC Universal’s 1st-Q Profit Plunges 45%

COMMENTS (33)

• Sorry “Stop It” but your claim that the numbers are fabricated just doesn’t hold water. MSNBC’s ratings are indeed in the cellar as are CNN’s. Thankfully, people are rejecting the Obama lovefests and continued Bush-bashing. Olbermann, Maddow, Matthews and Cooper have become ratings poison. Don’t take my word for it, check out the Nielsen website to get the facts. Don’t take my word for it. Here’s the ratings for primetime cable the night of the national tea parties. This is what happens when you report the news and don’t denigrate it in your hard news coverage:

  FOX RATINGS SURGE ON PROTEST COVERAGE
  8-11 PM ET

  FOXNEWS 3,390,000
  MSNBC 1,210,000
  CNN 1,070,000
  CNN HEADLINE 909,000

  As you can see, Fox’s ratings were greater than all of the other cable news outlets combined.

  Comment by AaronSch — Saturday April 18, 2009 @ 11:14pm PDT  Reply to this post

• FIRST: Jay Leno WILL be successful even if his solid core base is over 40. He has a great base who can actually have time to watch him since they do not have children that they are raising and have already established careers or are nearing retirement (baby boomers). It could be a generational gap with viewership BUT his base will see him succeed. ONLY 1 station (Boston) gave him problems with airing his show, not MANY. ONLY ONE! His base will make sure that any critic is proven wrong!

  FOXNews is primarily a right wing, Republican conservative based network catering to that base. MSNBC offers a counterpoint to that. CNN is somewhere in the center depending on anchor/show. I am glad that there is diversity in viewership with all the Big 3 Cablenews channels offered to us, the viewer.

  I think that television is going overboard with Reality programming. I wish that there were more scripted original programming on air. Too many reality shows currently or slated to be on air in Primetime. Of course, television history will say that these programs will run their course and change will come to television in the future, at some point.

  Television audiences have unlimited choices in which to go to for their viewing pleasure with cable tv having many offerings to us. In these tough economic times viewers are increasingly tuning into television more than ever with moviegoers struggling to find entertainment funds in their personal budget to satisfy their entertainment needs and wants. Television is on the verge of a much greater source of entertainment for us, the viewers. So we, the viewers, will challenge the networks whether cable or network, to create, shape, and deliver the best quality of shows in which all of us can be entertained to the maximum levels. After all, that may be all we have to provide stress relief and decompress from the negative news and so forth in these tough economic times. Come on Jeff Zucker! Give us what works and what we, the viewers, are asking for in quality programming, per se overall.

  Comment by LindaTNo1 — Sunday April 19, 2009 @ 9:03am PDT  Reply to this post

• AaronSch is totally correct. The ratings for Fox on on top. I bet Zucker and Immelt can’t believe it. Narcissism lives in their sorry bodies. Oh and Immelt sells to the Iranians. A real good, upstanding guy he is. Maybe after all this S has hit the fan he can go to Iran and start a network there. Just make sure he covers up. He can report that NBC is doing great…in his mind. Zucker too.

  FOX LIVES – HA!

  Comment by Tracy — Sunday April 19, 2009 @ 5:38pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Linda, How can you say that Jay Leno will be successful? First of all, here will be the pecking order for the talk shows come fall 2009:

  1. Conan O’Brien
  2. David Letterman
  3. Jimmiy Fallon
  4. Craig Ferguson
  5. Jimmy Kimmel
  6. Carson Daly
  7. Jay Leno

  Let’s face it, CBS is only loving NBC’s decision because Les Moonves can stack his schedule with scripted television to the point that CBS can kill off Jay Leno and NBC would have nothing at the 10 PM hour, even if NBC schedules Dateline five nights a week. The fact is that Jay Leno averages about 5 million viewers per show, but CBS Primetime averages about 10 million per show. Besides, you are pointing out that NBC is trying to nab the same exact viewers that flock to CBS at 10 PM and that is the over 40 crowd.

  As for Must See TV, that died after 2000 and you forgot the 1980′s. Must See TV Thursday Nights dates back to when NBC featured this schedule:

  8:00: The Cosby Show
  8:30: Family Ties
  9:00: Cheers
  9:30: Night Court
  10:00: LA Law

  Finally, one can make the argument that Must See TV lasted until 2004 when Friends and Fraiser both left the air.

  Comment by Jessy S. — Sunday April 19, 2009 @ 10:02pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Just one more word, this to Selective Reporting.

  I knew that the Boston relents news went down while Nikki was dealing with a personal emergency and that the news was old by the time she got the site going again.

  Comment by Jessy S. — Monday April 20, 2009 @ 1:57pm PDT  Reply to this post

• The original “Best Night of Television on Television” was in 1982:

  8p Fame
  9p Cheers (new show)
  9:30p Taxi (left ABC)
  10p Hill Street Blues

  The best remembered line-up was 1984:

  8p Cosby Show (new show)
  8:30 Family Ties
  9 Cheers
  9:30 Night Court
  10 Hill Street Blues

  Comment by What About — Monday April 20, 2009 @ 4:08pm PDT  Reply to this post

• The reason they are having so many problems is because of Jeff Zucker and the G.E. new business model. I never thought you could run production or post production like a washing machine factory… but they are definitely trying!!! If people only knew the sort of meetings we go to, and the people they move in to run important parts of the studios. All G.E. manager trainee’s known as OMLP’s. They are these people with zero years of production or post production experience, fresh out of college that are now managing whole departments. It’s a joke. Everyone thinks these people are jokes, and want them ALL out.

  Jeff Zucker needs to leave the company. G.E. needs to sell Universal… and we need to move on. They have ruined the NBC UNIVERSAL name completely. I thank all of the manager OMLP’s and their brilliant work flow charts, and numerous SOP’s on how to “do” production and post production for ruining the studio. What a joke!!

  Comment by K.R. — Thursday April 23, 2009 @ 9:28pm PDT  Reply to this post

• What About,

  I do remember that LA Law was on Thursday nights. I didn’t single out one fall season, but Night Court did hold the comedy anchor position for a number of years.

  As for that 1982 schedule, no wonder why Cheers finished dead last that year! I think Fame is nothing more than a passing fad that might have its fan club, but it is a series that deserves nothing more than a blimp in Television History. And to top it off, they are planning a “Fame” movie. Next thing you know, America Ferrera will be taking part in the distruction of “I Love Lucy” with Jackie Chan as Ricky the stay at home husband who always wants in on Lucy’s shows, and two Indians as the spend at all costs Fred and Ethel.

  Comment by Jessy S. — Thursday April 23, 2009 @ 11:56pm PDT  Reply to this post