Thursday, 28 March 2024

NBC trying to get out of last place rut in fall TV season

Depending on how TV audience preferences are measured, the NBC network still appears to continue to flounder in last place among the four major TV networks. What, if anything, will change this dynamic?

Sometimes you just have to admit to having a problem.

Robert Greenblatt, chairman of NBC Entertainment, hoping for a more optimistic outcome, came up with an explanation for having a less than stellar report card.

Speaking to a gathering of the nation’s TV critics this summer, Greenblatt claimed that NBC is the “only broadcast network flat from the previous season,” leaping to the conclusion that “flat is the new up.”

If the ratings of NBC remain flat, and the ratings of CBS, ABC and FOX somehow continue to drop a few percentage points over the next few years, then maybe NBC comes out on top, but at what price?

Meanwhile, Greenblatt also asserted that Jay Leno and Jimmy Fallon have pulled ahead of their competition in late night. This, of course, must be comforting news to Jay Leno who is being forced out of “The Tonight Show.”

BC’s top executive proved more informative when he said his network needs “to be in the event business,” focusing on live events that people want to watch in the moment rather than on DVR.

The notion of being aggressive on miniseries events led to the announcement that there would be a four-hour special on Hillary Clinton, starring Diane Lane, and a remake of “Rosemary’s Baby,” which Greenblatt made clear were not related events.

Since Clinton is expected to run for president again in 2016, controversy swirled around the network bumping up against equal time rules for other presidential candidates.

I remember when networks fretted about screening Ronald Reagan’s “Bedtime for Bonzo” during election season and having to grant equal time. In this case, it would have been Reagan asking for the equal time.

As for Clinton, in what is expected to be a more favorable airing of her career, Greenblatt noted that the former secretary of state would probably not announce her candidacy for two more years, likely well after the network runs its piece.

For all its trials and tribulations, NBC does have some interesting stuff coming to the fall season. After all, this is a network that has popular shows like “Parks & Recreation” and “Revolution,” to pick two disparate genres.

So why not succeed with new shows of a similar nature?

One new comedy to get a big boost right out of the gate should be Michael J. Fox’s eponymous new series. The truest words spoken by Robert Greenblatt were to observe the public’s “universal love” for Fox that almost guarantees a huge initial turnout for his show.

In a case of art imitating life, “The Michael J. Fox Show” has Fox starring as Mike Henry, a beloved news anchor who put his career on hold to spend more time with his family and focus on his health after he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s.

Now five years later, with the kids growing up, Mike has become restless and it just might be time for him to get back to work. Coincidentally, Michael J. Fox now returns to network TV after more than a decade’s absence.

In any case, “The Michael J. Fox Show,” with Betsy Brandt in the role of wife, looks to be the rather standard sitcom fare where the husband tries to juggle home, family and career. But who can resist Michael J. Fox?

A more derivative new sitcom might be “Sean Saves the World,” where Sean Hayes stars as a divorced gay father caring for a teenage daughter, while juggling a demanding job, offbeat employees and a pushy mom (Linda Lavin).

Indeed, “Sean Saves the World” has nothing to do with Sean Hayes trying to untangle the current mess of Syria and Middle East conflicts. No, it’s Hayes doing his trademark comedy and putting on a show to make some forget “The New Normal.”

Success breeds imitation, and with the popularity of ABC’s “Modern Family,” it’s little surprise that NBC’s “Welcome to the Family” is an offbeat family comedy with an air of familiarity.

Mike O’Malley and Mary McCormack star as a couple with mediocre student daughter Molly (Ella Rae Peck) who managed to graduate high school and has been accepted to college.

Across town, Molly’s secret boyfriend is a Latino honors student on his way to Stanford. The news breaks that the teens are expecting a child, resulting in two very different families being thrown together.

Though comparisons may be drawn to “Silence of the Lambs,” the one-hour drama “The Blacklist” has a different take on a criminal mastermind playing head games with an FBI profiler fresh out of Quantico.

James Spader’s Raymond “Red” Reddington, an ex-government agent, had been one of the FBI’s most-wanted fugitives until he surrendered on the condition that he would work only with Liz Keen (Megan Boone), a rookie FBI profiler.

Show producer John Eisendrath told critics that Spader’s character is “not a psychopath,” but rather someone who is “much more of an enigma.” The thrust of the series hinges on Red’s true intentions on why he wants to hunt down a major terrorist and other assorted bad guys.

If you’ve seen the movie “Secretary,” you know that Spader has the talent to play a twisted character. He’s the right fit for “The Blacklist,” a series that looks likely to generate some buzz.

If you remember Raymond Burr as the wheelchair-bound detective in “Ironside,” you may be too old for the new “Ironside,” where Blair Underwood plays the same part, albeit with a contemporary sensibility and in a new setting.

During the TV press tour conference, Underwood explained that the new “Ironside” is a “crime drama wrapped in a character study,” and everything is re-imagined, including “new texture, new storytelling,” with different expectations.

In the gritty world of NYPD, the titular character of “Ironside” is fearless, tough and intense. Blair Underwood fills the bill for a hard-nosed detective, though no one would have ever accused Burr of being a softie.

Waiting in the wings for a debut in late October is “Dracula,” with Jonathan Rhys-Meyers (“The Tudors”) ready to give the dashing count the full ladies’ man treatment during Victorian England.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.

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