Must-see TV is becoming must-cry TV
Comedies are quickly vanishing from the top broadcaster’s prime time schedule
NEW YORK — For decades NBC was the network of comedy, from the must-see-tv bloc of “Seinfeld” and “Friends” in the 1990s to the workplace sharpness of “30 Rock,” “The Office” and “Parks and Recreation” this century. But laughter is giving way to sobbing.
Comedies are quickly vanishing from the top broadcaster’s prime time schedule. At a recent upfront presentation, where the network pitches its lineup to advertisers, it spent very little time on the laughers, going to a tear-filled well again and again.
The network emphasized “This Is Us,” referring to the drama repeatedly and bringing out the entire cast to the Radio City Music Hall stage to take a bow. A shmaltzy teaser for the new season was given a prominent slot in the presentation.
Ditto for footage for new dramas “The Village,” a figuresfrom-the-neighbourhood ensemble that looks to challenge “This Is Us” in the Kleenex-pulling department; “Manifest,” a family melodrama about survivors of a mysterious plane crash;
and “New Amsterdam,” a medical drama with enough angst that the network will use “This Is Us” as a lead-in. NBC also said it was moving its three “Chicago” dramas from Dick Wolf Productions (”Med,” “Fire,” “P.D.”) to a single bloc Wednesday night.
The network has scheduled
just one new comedy for the fall, the Amy Poehler executive-produced “I Feel Bad,” about a complicated mom and career woman.
In fact, only one NBC night in the fall will show comedy at all — Thursday, when the network will air a bloc that includes its “Will & Grace” revival and “I Feel Bad.”
(It did pick up a few comedies for midseason, including the recently rescued “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” and a backyard-bar comedy titled “Abby’s.”)
What’s made NBC so cool to comedy?
Clearly a list of failed shows over the past few years have played a role. And the success of “This Is Us” — the show’s second season regularly drew more than 10 million total viewers — has spurred the network to try to build off that success.
But a more fundamental change may also be a factor. Comedy has proved hard to launch in the age of viral video, as audiences tend to gobble up laughs in five-minute chunks, leaving the broadcast networks to focus on more engagement-minded dramas that the internet can’t easily replicate. In 2011-2012, a total of eight comedies cracked the TVratings top 20 among the allimportant adults 18-49 demographic. Last year? Just two did. And this past season saw very few new comedy breakouts.
Clearly networks haven’t given up on comedies. But NBC is demonstrating that a winning strategy can be built with very few comedies, as the network’s dramas (and, OK, “The Voice” and Winter Olympics) are helping it cruise to a 2018-2019 first-place finish among adults ages 18-49. Next season will bring more of the same on the network.
You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, but mostly you’ll cry.