Running Studio 60 thread (spoilers)

thanks for payin' attention!

 

My parallel for Sorkin is M Night Shyamalan. A certain style, a huge ego, a couple of hits, some bad misses... and I make it a point to give all his stuff a good look.

I'll tell you why I've taken pleasure in this show's failure. I said over the summer NBC made a bad move to let Sorkin get involved in programming. An independent producer should not be programming a network.

I also said it was dumb to put the show opposite MNF, and I got laughed at here at SportsJournalists.com. "It's cable!" they scoffed.

Well guess what? In an apples-to-apples comparison, MNF is beating Studio 60-- when MNF is in only 80 percent of the households. The numbers in the adult demo are even more decisive.

It also pisses me off that NBC has the arrogance to promote the hell out of Studio 60 on Sunday Night Football. It's like saying, "We're so great, we know you'll watch SNF now but ignore MNF on Monday in favor of Studio 60." Or "watch football now, but not on Monday."

Dumb.

 

What do you expect NBC to do, put up a black screen on Monday nights?

NBC also promos MNF during the Sunday games. It's mandated by the NFL contract.

Look, I'm impressed with ESPN's numbers too -- and for $1.3 billion a year as opposed to NBC's $600 million for Sundays, the MNF ratings better be good -- but I think some of it is a product of the curiosity factor and the fact that the NFL has given MNF some terriffic early matchups.

Toward the end of the season, especially as the flex scheduling kicks in on Sundays, those MNF numbers are going to taper off a bit. Those November Bucs-Panthers and Raiders-Seahawks MNF games aren't looking like ratings winners right now.

Whether that will help Studio 60 -- if it's still on Mondays by then -- I don't know.

 

But why put your most promising show on Monday nights? Why not just stick Dateline in there?

 

Are ESPN's MNF ratings better this year than least year's MNF on ABC?

 

I agree -- I posted way back when that they never should have taken Studio 60 off Thursdays. I'm just mystified at the suggestion that NBC shouldn't be able to promo its own shows or try to do all it can to get people to watch on Monday nights, or any night.

 

Exactly. Thank you. Or counterprogram with something highly female.

But no - they had to give Aaron Sorkin the timeslot of his choosing.

And now 700 people are being let go at NBC.

 

Yes, I'm certain that's Sorkin's fault.

 

Not really -- ABC averaged 16.2 million viewers last year (which, BTW, was its worst season ever).

The Giants-Cowboys game had 12.7 million viewers and was the highest rated cable show ever.


EDIT: Found a different story that gave a Nielsen average of 16.2 for MNF on ABC. According to those ratings, MNF was the 10th most watched show on TV last year.

 

If you put MNF on Nickelodeon, 10.5 million people would watch.

But by all means, let's pretend like the Mouse is doing some reveloutionary stuff and changing television was we know it.

 

If you read the TV trades, it's a factor. They must've given him an exorbitant amount of money.

TVWeek implied if Studio 60 show had been a hit, the bloodletting might not have happened or might not have been as bad.

 

Independent producers with pull get involved with programming all the time. Steven Bochco, David Kelley, Dick Wolf all have/had significant say in deciding their shows' time slot. I don't see that as a reason to root for Studio 60's demise. Besides, if Sorkin had that much say, I doubt he would have chosen to put his show up against primetime football even if it was on cable.

The show was never destined to be a blockbuster hit, despite NBC's hype, largely because viewers just don't find the inner workings of televsion as fascinating as people in the industry do. But bad Sorkin, or formulaic Sorkin, will stll give you more lines and scenes that are gems than you'll get in almost any other scripted series, which is why I'll keep watching.