Upfront 2012: More Returning Than New Series With Shorter Orders This Year

COMMENTS (12)

• I guess I didn’t read all the coverage closely enough.

  But did RULES OF ENGAGEMENT get a midseason pickup?

  Comment by MrJeff2000 — Thursday May 17, 2012 @ 6:18am PDT  Reply to this post

  • Not yet. They are still working out deals.

    Comment by lll — Thursday May 17, 2012 @ 7:50am PDT  Reply to this post

• Are you kidding me? The only reason NBC has ordered 13 episodes or less for most of its sitcoms, is because they don’t have any faith in them.

  I mean what is the point of ordering 22 episodes of a series that can only master around 1.4 in the demo? They simply couldn’t cancel all of their shows, that is why they went ahead with shorter orders.

  I cannot believe I am saying this, but NBC might actually be in a worse place this coming September than last year, if that’s even possible. Maybe then can become the 5th place network behind Univision.

  Comment by Harry — Thursday May 17, 2012 @ 6:19am PDT  Reply to this post

  • Or because they are older and approaching the end of their lives and/or are low-rated and/or they want to spread a limited pool of money around…

    Comment by Brian J — Friday May 18, 2012 @ 12:20pm PDT  Reply to this post

• The way I see it, NBC is making the decision that they have such a big challenge ahead of them, they have to focus on building one or two nights, and then go from there. So they are hoping to take last year’s Sunday night success, and build it to a 3-night, Sun-Tues success in the Fall. If they can do that, it will be a major accomplishment. That means, however, that they are not going to “waste” a lot of new shows on Wed – Fri. Rather, they will use up their old, lower-rated shows on those nights, throw in a couple new shows to see if anything catches, and then focus more on Wed-Fri at midseason, where hopefully they will be starting with a relatively strong Mon/Tues block. NBC doesn’t have the luxury, at this point, of trying to compete aggressively 7 nights a week.
  As Oprah learned with OWN, you need to build a schedule one night at time. If you spread yourself too thin, over too many nights, it doesn’t work.

  Comment by Tony — Thursday May 17, 2012 @ 7:58am PDT  Reply to this post

  • I think you hit the nail on the head.

    Your line of thinking is why I believe “Revolution” is on Mondays, not Thursdays. If YouTube hits are any indication, it’s going to premiere big. If that happens, and it holds up, that’s great for NBC–except for the fact that it’s at 10:00, so it’s harder to use it to build a show. I’d not sure I’d have it switch nights, but were I programming NBC, I’d consider moving it down an hour at midseason and putting another show after it. It could move the show to a new night, but unless there’s a clear opening–as in, both “Grey’s” and “Person of Interest” down significantly, and “Glee” failing to fly on its new night–I wouldn’t make too drastic a change.

    It’ll definitely be interesting to see what happens with NBC next spring, when it’ll decide what it needs to do for the following season. And this goes double on Thursdays.

    Comment by Brian J — Friday May 18, 2012 @ 12:32pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Harry you are absolutely correct. I would’ve just cancelled everything and started from scratch with the exception of their “Hit” shows, “The Voice,” “Smash,” and the now cancelled “Harry’s Law.” SVU is way way way past its prime. None of the new shows looks decent and overall the networks have done a horrible job with shows. Come on ABC, with their Alien/Jami Gertz comedy, that looks beyond terrible, and to boot it gets the post “Modern Family” slot, they should’ve kept “Happy Endings” there.

  Comment by Zeke — Thursday May 17, 2012 @ 10:49am PDT  Reply to this post

• Don’t Trust The B in Apt 23 actually got a 13 episode first season order for mid-season. They aired only 7 this spring. The remaining 6 that were shot will start off the next season in the fall followed by the 13 additional episodes that were ordered for renewal.

  Comment by Dan — Thursday May 17, 2012 @ 12:13pm PDT  Reply to this post

• always ratings vs critical allicam

  Comment by ben — Thursday May 17, 2012 @ 1:18pm PDT  Reply to this post

• I am the only one that thinks broadcast networks should adopt shorter seasons in general, similar to their cable counterparts? This would (hopefully) allow for stronger creative output and less viewer erosion due to scheduling. As a viewer few things are more frustrating (and perplexing) than looking forward to your favorite show and finding out its a rerun, especially when the shows it anchors are new. Also, as it does allow for a greater variety and number of shows throughout the year.

  Comment by Jay — Thursday May 17, 2012 @ 2:09pm PDT  Reply to this post

  • Do the economics of the big four networks allow this? Someone told me that the networks lose money on most shows, but that’s not clear if it’s because of some inherent way of doing this that makes this unavoidable or because most shows fail, and failing shows don’t make money. If it’s the latter, and switching things up means more eyeballs to the screen, wouldn’t this make them more money?

    Comment by Brian J — Friday May 18, 2012 @ 12:37pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Actually, that’s not a great notion because you have a lot of production people working behind the scenes of a show. If every broadcast, scripted TV show had a 13-episode order, it would cause chaos.

  Comment by roy — Thursday May 17, 2012 @ 2:59pm PDT  Reply to this post