SALON

Sunday, May 13, 2012 6:15 PM UTC

Seeking a comeback, NBC bets heavily on comedy

By

Topics: From the Wires,

NEW YORK (AP) — Hoping to lure viewers with laughs, struggling NBC is calling on old friend Matthew Perry to lend a hand.

The TV network unveiled a fall schedule on Sunday that has 10 sitcoms, double the number of dramas it will air. Comedy is being added to two nights, Tuesday and Friday. All the low-rated but critically-acclaimed Thursday comedies earned renewals, although “Community” will move to Fridays.

Four of the comedies are new, including “Go On,” starring former “Friends” actor Perry as a fast-talking, sarcastic sportscaster who loses his wife in a car accident.

“It is heavy on comedy,” said Robert Greenblatt, NBC entertainment president. “It was a conscious decision we made … at the beginning of the development season. The audience is really open to comedy right now.”

NBC is finding a new generation of fans discovering Perry’s Chandler character through “Friends” reruns, and that contributed to “Go On” having broad appeal in audience testing, Greenblatt said. NBC gave the comedy one of its few plum time slots, after the second night of “The Voice” on Tuesdays.

In an annual ritual, all the broadcast networks present their fall schedules to advertisers this week and ask them to commit to millions of dollars in commercial time.

Fourth place NBC is in a prolonged slump. Its prime-time viewership was up slightly this year, but only because NBC telecast the Super Bowl. Take that game out and viewership was down 3 percent, according to the Nielsen company. Sunday night football in the fall is the network’s most popular programming.

Among the shows canceled by NBC are “Harry’s Law,” ”Awake,” ”Are You There, Chelsea?” and “Bent.”

One show on the bubble was Brian Williams’ newsmagazine, “Rock Center,” but it is on the fall schedule for Thursday nights at 10 p.m. Greenblatt conceded the show’s ratings are not what NBC hoped for, but said such shows frequently take time to catch on.

“Smash” was renewed, although the series about putting on a Broadway production will not be back until midseason. “The Voice” currently airs two nights a week toward the end of the singing competition; starting in fall it will air two nights throughout each run.

Two of the current Thursday comedies, “30 Rock” and “Community,” have orders of only 13 episodes next season, often a sign that executives are hedging their bets. “The Office” and “Parks & Recreation” have full-season orders. Despite reports that some of those shows have been told it will be their last season, Greenblatt said that wasn’t true and they could have longer lives if ratings improve.

“The audience gets a vote,” said Ted Harbert, who oversees NBC for corporate parent Comcast Corp.

NBC’s challenge is getting audiences to sample some of the four new comedies and two new dramas it will introduce this fall, when they are out of the habit of watching NBC. Three new comedies, three new dramas and four new alternative series were ordered and will join the lineup sometime in midseason.

Betty White’s “Off Their Rockers” candid camera show will also return midseason.

Between the Olympics and “America’s Got Talent,” NBC has more original programming on during the summer than its rivals, and Greenblatt said that the network hopes viewers are enticed by promotions for the new shows.

Besides “Go On,” the new NBC shows on in the fall are:

—”The New Normal,” about a gay couple that invites a surrogate mother into their home as they try to have a baby. Ellen Barkin is featured as the prospective mom’s grandmother.

—”Animal Practice,” a comedy about a veterinarian who learns his ex-lover is taking over his business.

—”Guys With Kids,” a comedy executive produced by Jimmy Fallon. The show is what it sounds like: three guys in their 30s trying to hold onto their youth despite being new fathers. Jamie Lynn Sigler of “The Sopranos” and Tempestt Bledsoe of “The Cosby Show,” are featured.

—”Revolution,” a J.J. Abrams action series where the world is plunged back into a time when electricity doesn’t work.

—”Chicago Fire,” a drama about a fire rescue unit from “Law & Order” executive producer Dick Wolf.

Midseason shows include a comedy about a president and first lady played by Bill Pullman and Jenna Elfman, a comedy with Dane Cook as a foulmouthed DJ forced to share his microphone with a feminist and a drama about Hannibal Lecter.

More David Bauder.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments are not enabled for this story.

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations