NBC Also Picked Up ‘Mercy’

COMMENTS (25)

• Fox did not pick up Brothers (speaking of struggling.)

  Comment by Sparky — Friday October 23, 2009 @ 4:30pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Taylor Schilling is insanely brilliant on the contrived Mercy. Unbelievable that she’s only 25. Incredibly gifted.

  Comment by Tyler-Perry_is_the_Anti-Christ — Friday October 23, 2009 @ 4:37pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Three shows that make my eyes bleed painfully. Thank God I have a remote.

  Comment by Used to love TV — Friday October 23, 2009 @ 5:31pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Struggling? Its ratings are actually solid and respectable — considering it’s on NBC.

  Comment by Doc Michaels — Friday October 23, 2009 @ 5:35pm PDT  Reply to this post

• ecch. COMMUNITY isn’t funny.

  Thank God 30 ROCK is back.

  Comment by go away, joel — Friday October 23, 2009 @ 6:13pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Mercy is winning its time period in total viewers…VERY few NBC shows can say that.

  Comment by INterested Observer — Friday October 23, 2009 @ 6:21pm PDT  Reply to this post

  • Umm, no it isn’t – “The New Adventures of Old Christine” on CBS is beating it. Check your Nielsens. Even so, a 4.3 is reason to celebrate under the pathetic circumstances NBC now finds itself. The renewal of “Mercy” does mean that “Trauma” is toast – there’s never been enough audience to support two medical dramas on one network at any time on TV, but of course our old friend Ben Silverman never believed in that bit of common sense when coming up with the lousy schedule this fall.

    Comment by Ozmoe — Saturday October 24, 2009 @ 7:43am PDT  Reply to this post

    • If you actually looked at the ratings for the time period – the entire hour – you would see that it is in fact winning in total viewers. Also, if you weren’t living under a rock, you’d know that the show was meant to be a midseason show and “Parenthood” was planned to be on in fall. Cancer sucks. Clearly you don’t care.

      Comment by Merrick — Sunday October 25, 2009 @ 10:16pm PDT  Reply to this post

• So lame. NBC must be hurting if they are gonna pick this show up.

  Comment by Ronald McDouchebag — Friday October 23, 2009 @ 9:01pm PDT  Reply to this post

• They picked up Mercy but canceled Southland? Wow.

  Comment by tv fan — Friday October 23, 2009 @ 9:18pm PDT  Reply to this post

• I love amy poehler but Park and Recreation is such an unfunny sitcom, why do they continue to renew it — it has beyond horrible ratings and not exactly critical acclaim. They need to develop the next multi camera show like Friends instead of this show that barely gets a 5 rating. They should at least move the office to 8 to give it some help.yet another stupid decision about NBC — who’s running that network again and is happy that it is being run into the ground? they took heroes and are running that into the ground.

  Comment by jake — Friday October 23, 2009 @ 10:15pm PDT  Reply to this post

• I worked at NBC starting in 2001. It likely began before I started, but it soon became clear that no one knew how to create successful tv, so they relied purely on borrowing from other networks. This was exemplified by NBC’s very late arrival on the reality tv scene, then the creation of dreadfully soft, derivative reality shows.

  Years of failure later, after it’s been said a trillion times “Seinfeld would never have been given enough time to succeed in today’s environment!”, look which idea has been spawned:

  “Let’s give our shows time to succeed”. Admirable, but it’s outweighed by the obvious: NBC STILL can not identify a good show vs. a bad show. “Community” is mediocre, it’s fate still uncertain but it’s an NBC show through and through, which doesn’t bode well for the show. “Parks & Rec” is truly laughless, despite the wonderful Amy Poehler and the potentially great Aziz Ansari.

  NBC ought to learn what everyone else knows: Regardless of industry, strive for innovation, and realize that adopting the status quo rarely if ever leads to success.

  Comment by B. Real — Friday October 23, 2009 @ 10:38pm PDT  Reply to this post

• While I would have agreed with Jake during the tedious, awkardly unfunny first season of Parks & Recreation, the numerous positive notices I read online about the new eps this season lead me to catching up with them via the cable system’s primetime on demand feature. I’m glad I did, too, as the show has improved dramatically and is now quite funny and getting better with every episode — the writing is sharper and the characters are much more defined. I share no love for NBC and the way they’ve damaged their network, but for now I can at least watch P&R/The Office/30 Rock and have 90 minutes of genuinely well-made, well-written comedies so there’s still some hope for this once-great network.

  Comment by Joseph — Friday October 23, 2009 @ 10:44pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Bad shows, bad.

  And Jake, there is no reason to move The Office to 8. 8pm is now a dead zone on most networks. HUT levels are up at 9 and Office does well in the demos. Look what happened moving mediocre stuff like Community did at 8. CBS moved Big Bang away from 8.

  Comment by WHa — Friday October 23, 2009 @ 10:59pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Parks and Rec is really good this season, I’m glad they gave it a chance.

  Comment by fan — Friday October 23, 2009 @ 11:22pm PDT  Reply to this post

• why why and why?

  Comment by insideratlgf — Saturday October 24, 2009 @ 12:07am PDT  Reply to this post

• Only hearing great things about NBC’s comedies. Parks & Rec has gotten much better in the season, and each episode of Community is funnier than the last. Glad they both got the back 9.

  And yeah, Mercy won its time slot this past week, of course NBC is going to keep it around.

  Comment by AJ — Saturday October 24, 2009 @ 3:39am PDT  Reply to this post

  • Meant to say “Parks & Rec has gotten much better in the SECOND season”

    Comment by AJ — Saturday October 24, 2009 @ 3:40am PDT  Reply to this post

• Mercy is an awful show and the lead is untalented and sorry to say homely. And of she’s 25, Jeff Zucker has conscience.

  Comment by Have Mercy On Me — Saturday October 24, 2009 @ 9:53am PDT  Reply to this post

• Doesn’t sound like “Mercy” is struggling, Nikki –

  “Mercy” has averaged a 2.1 rating, 5 share in adults 18-49 and 7.8 million viewers overall for the season, and has improved the network’s timeslot average in 18-49 31 percent from last season. It also has finished No. 1 in its timeslot in total viewers for its last three airings

  Comment by Ruffles Have Ridges — Saturday October 24, 2009 @ 1:43pm PDT  Reply to this post

• As bad as NBC is, USA is amazing. White Collar was really a well executed show that NBC used to create and along with the other shows on that cable network, a solid slate.

  NBC ought to just re-show USA network shows. They are better than anything they have now.

  Comment by whiskey — Saturday October 24, 2009 @ 2:02pm PDT  Reply to this post

• I’m surprised. I would have guessed that a “Mercy” killing was inevitable.

  Comment by Jakeem — Saturday October 24, 2009 @ 5:04pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Maybe they’ll kill Trauma. Not sure how they’ll have room on their spring slate for shows like Chuck, Parenthood, etc, when they extend other shows. Any ideas?

  Comment by Amy — Sunday October 25, 2009 @ 6:03am PDT  Reply to this post

• It doesn’t matter, Amy. Those shows will fail, too.

  Next season, the only shows that haven’t been decimated will be Office, 30 Rock and Biggest Loser.

  Comment by Donaghy — Sunday October 25, 2009 @ 10:23pm PDT  Reply to this post

• who are you people? get a hobby. buy a blow-up doll. seriously. i hope at least a few of you work in the business. if you don’t and you’re posting about network strategy, that’s just tragic. btw, has anyone heard the rumor that angela bromstead is getting fired?

  Comment by peter — Tuesday October 27, 2009 @ 10:32am PDT  Reply to this post