TV finds joy in tears, not laughter
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 line-up to advertisers, it spent little time on the laughers, going to a tearfilled well again and again.
The network emphasised 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-neighbourhood ensemble that looks to challenge This Is Us in the tissue-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, PD) to a single bloc on Wednesday night.
By contrast, the network has scheduled just one new comedy for autumn, the Amy Poehler executive-produced I Feel Bad, about a complicated mom and career woman.
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.
Clearly, networks haven’t given up on comedies. The big numbers for ABC’s Roseanne revival (and the 2018-2019 pilot orders in a similar vein) testify to that.
But NBC is demonstrating that a winning strategy can be built with very few comedies, as the network’s dramas (and, okay, 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 mostly you’ll cry. cry, but