Thursday, January 7, 2010

Bad late-night ratings - Good news for scripted television?

NBC's local affiliates' late-news ratings have beaten the winter Olympics skiers to the bottom of the hill... and they're not happy about it. So, after the closing ceremonies in Vancouver, there will be a shuffle in the network's team lineup.

"The network has a plan in the works to restore Jay Leno to his old spot at 11:35 each weeknight for a half-hour, while pushing the man who replaced him, Conan O’Brien, to a starting time of 12:05 a.m. Mr. O’Brien would then have a full hour."

While there's no mention in this article of what would fill the 10pm slot, I'm hoping that scripted shows could be given a chance. Okay, call me a dreamer... But creativity doesn't have to be incredibly expensive to produce... and so-called "reality" can never take the place of a well-produced comedy or drama.

Oh, sure, they can try.

But if the execs open up to new concepts and stop rehashing old formulae, they could actually find the cost/viewership balance with something more than an ersatz tribe of misfits stranded in the middle of nowhere, trying to out-dis each other in front of an army of cameras.

Time for me to get that spec pilot back on the front burner...

Posted via web from Yes, That Bob West

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