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 Monday’s 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 schmaltzy teaser for the new season — complete with star Mandy More choking up and losing it several times — was given a prominent slot in the presentation.
Ditto for footage for new dramas “The Village,” a figures-from-the-neighborhood 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.
By contrast, 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.”)
The network was so de-emphasizing comedy during its pitch that when adsales chief Linda Yaccarino came out late in the presentation to hype what Madison Avenue executives had just witnessed, she skipped the few halfhour yukfests entirely, instead stressing the “pure emotion” of “This Is Us.” 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 TV ratings top 20 among the all-important 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. The big numbers for ABC’s “Roseanne” revival (before it was killed) ) testify to that. But NBC is demonstrating that a winning strategy can be built with very few comedies, as its dramas (and, OK, “The Voice” and Winter Olympics) have shown.
You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, but mostly you’ll cry.