No upward adjustment in the finals for NBC, which logged an abysmal 1.1 primetime rating among adults 18-49 last night. That tied the network’s worst in-season Thursday average ever with all-original scripted programming. (The previous time NBC delivered a 1.1 Thursday 18-49 rating was on May 17, 2012 with three episodes of Community, 30 Rock and Awake.) NBC finished as No. 7(!) in primetime last night behind CBS, the NFL Network, ABC, Fox, Univision and TBS.
Related: Open Letter To Kathy Bates: Congrats On Skewing-Up NBC
NBC was facing an uphill battle on Thursdays this fall with longtime anchor The Office gone and two returning series — marginal ratings performers Parks And Recreation and Parenthood — bookending a lineup of all-new comedies Welcome To The Family, Sean Saves The World and The Michael J. Fox Show. The wheels came off very quickly, with three series — Parks And Recreation, Parenthood and Michael J. Fox — posting a 1.2 18-49 rating last night, and Sean Saves The World and Welcome To The Family only managing a 1.0 and 0.8, respectively, in their second week on the air. All but Parks & Rec logged week-to-week drops of 20% or more. NBC has no immediate plans to shake up its Thursday lineup or pull the weakest performer, Welcome To The Family (Welcome back, Community?). And it is dominant on three nights: Sunday with Sunday Night Football, Monday with The Voice and breakout The Blacklist, and Tuesday with Voice and hot sophomore Chicago Fire. Still, such abysmal numbers give NBC a black eye, especially on a night it has such a storied history.
Related: CBS Makes Monday Changes





Hmm. I guess the numbers for Harry’s Law must be looking pretty good now, NBC.
The demo numbers for the last five Harry’s Law episodes were as follows:
0.9
0.8
0.8
1.0
0.7
I don’t think they are missing Harry’s Law at all.
No? The final few episodes of Harry’s Law were getting 0.8 in 18-49. Every single show on NBC outrated it last night.
Amen to that!
That 1.38 rating “Harry’s Law” averaged in season 2 and the 132nd place on the year-end chart for the 2011-2012 season? Not really.
Do you guys even know how to read? The reason they cancelled HARRY was its low demo numbers. But it was their top-rated scripted show in TOTAL VIEWERS! NBC, like most other networks, foolishly thinks that people over 49 have no disposable cash or interest in buying stuff. That’s why they keep renewing those crummy sitcoms that average 2.5 million viewers each–because they’re all watched by kids who live with their parents and have no jobs.
It’s not NBC or the networks, it’s the advertisers. The networks will deliver whatever viewers the advertisers want. That’s how they make money, afterall.
If the advertisers wanted older viewers then NBC would happily deliver them, and NBC would be ecstatic if they could air 5 hours of Dateline each week rather than developing expensive scripted programming.
flawed methodology. the advertisers will go where the viewers go. simple as that. if you convince them that the viewers they want are A2554, they’ll focus on that demo. don’t blame the advertisers. blame the networks.
Yeah, right. “Blame the networks”. LOL… As if NBC wouldn’t gladly charge the advertisers for every single eyeball they can get. As if they intentionally want to make as little money as they can.
Older people, regardless of the amount of money they have, are set in their ways, and advertising is not very likely to get them to drop their favorite brands that they’ve been loyal to for ages and buy the advertised products instead.
Younger people are more easily swayed by advertising. They’re more willing to switch brands, try out new products. Plus they are the old people of tomorrow, who will also ultimately become set in their ways and loyal to certain brands, so you need to get them now.
Beautiful. The guy over 49 is buying the TV set for the 18 year old son who lives at home.
It’s the teenage son (or daughter) who’s picking the brand of TV (and home theater system) for his/her room, not the over-49 parent. Especially since said teen kid is likely to be more tech-saavy than the parent. It’s not about who supplies the money in the home, it’s about who gets to spend the money.
The advertisers do know that the 49+ crowd has more disposable income — and it’s almost entirely beside the point. The thing that makes those older viewers less desirable to advertisers is that they’re far more set in their brand loyalties than the under-49 crowd is. The advertisers spent all their money on the 49+ crowd when that crowd was younger than 49 — there’s no sense in throwing money after an audience that they’ve already paid for.
The problem with Harry’s Law was that its total viewership was too old. By contrast, the reason why NCIS keeps plugging along is that it’s as close to a four-quadrant show as a crime show can get — male/female, young/old. Harry’s Law simply didn’t break out into a show that appealed to younger people — it was a niche show that was too niche to pay its own way. That’s simply the difference between commercial failure and commercial success at work.
BULLSHIT.
That is just a myth that lazy advertisers repeat to themselves. In a world in which new brands and new consumer goods are constantly being invented, it has absolutely no basis in reality. If it did, Apple would still be trading at $8 a share.
And as for the kids being more tech-savvy, who the hell do you think was on the Internet in the 1990s? People who are now in their 40s and 50s, aka “parents”. My boomer brother and my demographically desirable niece both discuss which iPad to buy. My 78-year-old mother is putting together family albums using online digital editing programs. Times have changed and it’s long past time for advertisers to catch up.
You’re the fool here, not us. We get how the ratings work, while you clearly haven’t the first idea.
Parks and Rec has to get some new blood in the regulars……….get some other ethnics…..like spanish…the are spanish all over this country but Pawnee Ind…???
Aubrey Plaza is Hispanic.
Who cares about ethnicity, I just want them to bring as many funny people as physically possible. Show’s great either way, though.
Aubrey Plaza is Latina, Rhetta is black, Aziz Ansari is Indian, Rashida Jones is mixed. It’s one of the most racially diverse shows on TV already.
My eye open wide when I read how NBC Thursday wasn’t the winner in the rating war. Let face it NBC lose two hit show when they decide to stop film and decide to put in new show that no one ever hear about. I hope that NBC will give the new series a chance.
I’m having a hard time understanding the words that are coming out of your (proverbial) mouth.
lmao
And Ed Chung is still employed there!
uh, actually, he’s not. check your facts.
Ed still works on the lot, but in physical plant services. He’s the man to see if you need a hand truck.
Dear NBC, Remember when you cancelled HARRY’S LAW and I put a curse on you? Enjoy Purgatory, suckas! Love, Cadavra
Then you must have cursed ABC, CBS, FOX and THE CW, too, because every network is having one or more nights of shows tanking. NBC is dominant on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays. Hardly an effective curse. In the demo, CBS is bombing on Mondays (goodbye We Are Men, don’t get too comfy Hostages), ABC already axed Lucky 7 (and Betrayal, Trophy Wife, Once Upon A Time in Wonderland and Back in the Game aren’t looking too healthy), FOX is a comedy-challenged mess on Tuesday (X Factor is underperforming for the third straight year, and except for the Cory Monteith Goodbye Episode, Glee is flatlining), and The CW, well…. why bother even talking about the Cee-Dub.
And what’s with NBC’s ad campaign for Thursday nights? Namely, the ad with Poehler, Hayes, the other guy, and MJ Fox sitting and grimacing around a table, as if they were awaiting the results of a jury verdict.
Jeff Zucker — please come back. We know you’re having fun destroying CNN, but we need someone to deliver the coup de grace to NBC, and you were so close…
Zucker took the network to last place, so I don’t see that happening.
Exactly…he’s already destroyed NBC and is on the verge of sinking CNN into the ground, so why bring someone back that will just continue to do the same thing all over again? Bring Las Vegas back and a few other shows for that matter that were worth watching at one time. They truly have no concept of good programming whatsoever at Nothing But Crap!
Parks and Rec is such a hilarious, well written show, why don’t people watch it?!?! And, MJF show seemed pretty funny in the pilot, plus I thought he’d be more of a draw, esp. in the early episodes.
What are you high when you watch Parks and Rec?
That show BLOWS! MJF shows is only OK and Sean Saves the World is not terrible, but there FAR, FAR, FAR From must see TV that ABC has (Modern Family and Suburgatory) in the comedy department.
And while I LOVE Parenthood they should have kept that on Tuesday nights. Gladiator nation on ABC and the love of a great mystery procedural with a British hottie are just too much competition for Parenthood to pull in strong numbers.
So Parks blows, but you enjoy Modern Family and Suburgatory? Do people really feel this way? What’s wrong with you people?!?
There is no way any sane person thinks Suburgatory is funny.
“Anonymous” smells like a plant.
Parks and Rec is probably the best comedy on network television. I am thoroughly enjoying MJF, although the opening music is dreadful.
Parks and Recreation has always been a stinkbomb filled with mostly unlikable characters. Why NBC has continued to renew it for all these years is a mystery. But the audience has clearly rejected it.
See you soon Community
Yeah, because Community is a ratings juggernaut.
Community pulls these numbers up against The Big Bang Theory. NBC can get a 1.4 with Community at 8, and give Parks a 1.6 rating. It’s no juggernaut, but it’s an improvement.
All you Harry’s Law posters need to chill out. The show, yes averaged a high total viewer count, but in the demos it barely ever registerd a 1.2 in its final season. Go look it up and then we’ll talk
And stop cursing NBC. It’s the advertisers who don’t care about anyone over 49, and that goes for all shows on all networks. Stop buying their crap, that’ll curse them better than anything.
It’s fair to curse NBC as NBC remains complicit in the young demo fallacy whereas CBS overtly states it is a fallacy.
Exactly! Remember Jeff Zucker’s “Managing for margins” malarkey. How’s that working out for you, NBC?
Of course CBS says that. Because its shows stink up the demo in comparison to their total viewership! They still get less advertising money for their programming than the other networks with better demos do. CBS’s whining is the equivalent of a guy strutting around puffing out his chest and claiming he’s the biggest and baddest while not actually proving it.
Stop drinking the CBS Kool-Aid and acknowledge reality.
NBC has become the Republican party of network TV.
Bob, consider this a wake up call. NOBODY LIKES LCD COMEDY.
Be careful what you wish for, lest he create more Showtime-esque “comedies”, and nobody wants that.
The Peacock has really plummeted since ANIMAL PRACTICE.
It’s funny cause it’s true.
NBC would save money and get higher ratings on Thursdays by showing Friends and Seinfeld reruns. Or maybe they should just air infomercials.
Bill, the Cleveland affiliate actually airs Matlock reruns and movies at times, in place of these horrible NBC shows and they do much better ratings-wise than this drivel NBC pushes on their affiliates.
Hell.. bring back a “Movie of the Week”.. always a ratings getter..
It’s almost shocking how consistently off the mark NBC is year after year. Like zero clue.
Brenda Forever would have broken through. Was not LCD. Was good. Smart. Funny.
I don’t get how more people don’t watch Parks and Rec. Amy Poehler is such a freaking genius. The entire cast is golden. But NBC can afford a Thursday when they have monster football Sundays, The Voice Mondays and pretty strong followup Tuesdays. Although, now that The Biggest Loser will take over Tuesdays, we’ll see what happens. Still, since football dominates everything, overall they are still on top.
At least when they had The Office, 30 Rock, Community and Parks/Rec the numbers weren’t great but the shows won awards and hit syndication.
Then they introduced the world to ‘Whitney’ and everyone knew NBC was no longer trying to make its comedies funny…
Sounds like NBC needs some ASSISTANCE! (hint hint)
They really do. That pilot was funny. It was like Action, told from Stuart’s POV.
We all knew the numbers were going to go down for the 9:00-10:00 comedies. It was up against the tribute for Cory on Glee and the 200th episode of Grey. I am still holding on to hope for Sean Saves the World. I think that show is so funny and the cast is great. Give it 2-3 more weeks and I am sure the numbers will slowly go up. There have been so many shows in the past from all networks not just NBC who have bombed in numbers at the beginning and then the shows become a hit and last 6-8 years on the air. You can’t go by the numbers all the time.
Valid points. I actually liked SStW too. It’s not brilliant, but there is something fun about it. I really like Thomas Lennon as the evil boss. Really I am enjoying all of the new comedies on NBC, I just wish they would go back to more workplace shows.
They need to get the shows sampled. I agree Sean saves the world is funny, and I didn’t expect it to be and welcome to the family is pretty good as well. Michael j fox needs to bring on the funny. Parks is just not a lead off spot.
Maybe all of the NBC shows will receive Emmy nominations making it worth the while to keep the lineup in tack.
Seeing that WTTF and SSTW have a lower metacritic score than Animal Practice and The New Normal, I wouldn’t bet on it. :)
TACT. TACT!!!!! Keep the lineup in TACT!!!! And these are the people with allll the answers.
Oh wow, those terrible bratty british girls from ‘Ellen’ will fit right at this network.
Actually, the CW is doing good for what it expects. “Arrow”,”Supernatural” and the Vampire Diaries”. Good shows with HUGE fan bases!
It’s doing well.
It`s such a shame because NBC looks to have NO PLAN. If these were the shows that went to series i`d hate to see what NBC passed on, could that John Mulcheny show be any worse then Sean Hayes`s show? I mean at least we get to see Martin Short, but my lord these shows on ALL the networks SUCK. And as for Harry`s Law..NBC screwed the pooch on that show and all u haters just enjoy a well written, well acted show with heart.
I don’t know, Mulaney was pretty flawed. Lots of drunk girl stereotypes and some pretty racist humor. Martin Short was great though.
Bring back John Miller and Vince Manze. We were riding high with them! The promo dept was the best in the biz!
Congrats Greenblatt on your recent contract extension! Smart move Mr. Burke. Let’s keep the guy who’s turned your network into a laughing stock around a little longer. In all seriousness, Greenblatt and his inept flunkies would do much better if they kept the notes to a minimum and didn’t screw with casting. If you don’t “get” comedy, as Greenblatt has stated, then why the hell does he note shows to death? Also, what’s the point of casting directors if he’s just going to put who he wants into shows? Seventh place!!!