Ranting On...NBC

For this week's "Ranting On," I felt compelled to write about the continued collapse of the peacock.  NBC, once the home of Cheers, Friends, Seinfeld, and Frasier, a ratings powerhouse that had the Today Show reign supreme and the Tonight Show was king of late night, has fallen so far that it is now win fifth place to Univision.  So the question is, why did this happen, how can they fix it, and what the hell is going on with them mixing up the one thing that's actually succeeding?

That thing, of course, is that they are still the reigning champs in late night.  It seems bizarre with their morning show consistently losing to Good Morning America and the bottom falling out on their broadcast shows that the channel is focusing on removing Jay Leno, a consistent ratings powerhouse even if he's not a critical success.

Of course, if you paid attention 3-4 years ago, you know this isn't the first time that Jay Leno has been the center of a huge problem for NBC.  When Conan O'Brien became the host of The Tonight Show, and Leno, initially rumored for FOX, moved to the 9:00 time slot (I'm central time zone-adjust as needed for your particular coast) five nights a week, absolutely no one was happy.  This caused a messy, nasty feud in the media, with Leno persistently airing NBC's dirty laundry in his monologues (again, shades of the present), and O'Brien's ratings consistently falling to his CBS competitor David Letterman.  After less than a year of this uncomfortable back-and-forth, Conan got a massive settlement, and Jay returned to The Tonight Show.

What this move cost NBC wasn't just a year's worth of ratings in the late night wars.  For that year, four prime-time slots that could have served as launching pads for NBC (plus Friday, theoretically) were taken up by Jay Leno, and if there's a massive problem in NBC's ratings dilemma, it's a lack of proper prime-time identity, due to years of trying an "anything-that-sticks" sort of approach.  CBS is the home of the cop show (NCIS, CSI) and the broad, studio audience sitcoms (The Big Bang Theory, Two and a Half Men).  ABC has long been the home of female-oriented shows like Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives, and FOX has cultivated hipper, younger-oriented shows like New Girl, Glee, and Animation Domination Sundays.

The thing about these channels is that while they consistently prop up their tent poles (think Grey's/The Bachelor, CSI/NCIS, and American Idol), they also are constantly trying to add and cultivate something new for their audience.  Shows like Once Upon a Time, Revenge, and particularly Scandal have given ABC a new generation of buzz and female-oriented shows to replace departing Desperate Housewives and Private Practice.  CBS has added to its crime/broad comedy block with shows like Elementary and recent comedies 2 Broke Girls and Mike & Molly.

NBC, on the other hand, doesn't have a proper identity.  After its many yuppie sitcoms like Frasier, Friends, and Seinfeld, and its hard-boiled, critically-acclaimed dramas like Homicide, ER, and Law & Order went off the air, NBC seemed to be stuck in a "throw it against the wall, let's see what fits" sort of situation.  Sometimes it seemed to be signing on for quirky, critically-acclaimed sitcoms, but as The Office tended to do strongly, it was apparent that NBC didn't understand the critically-acclaimed aspect of this element, because for every Community, Parks and Recreation, and 30 Rock, there seemed to be a half-dozen Whitneys and 1600 Penns stinking up their lineup.  NBC also seems constantly intent on moving its entire lineup around the globe.  Even in this age of TiVo, people like to know what night their favorite shows will be on television, but for a show with potential like Community, moving it consistently away from shows that match well with it (like The Office, 30 Rock) is going to cost you those viewers that were just tasting it and hadn't invested in it yet.  And finally, NBC seemed to jump the gun too quickly with some of its shows that may have needed a while to cultivate an audience, axing a show like Southland, which had so much potential, and shipping it off to TNT, where it's entering its fifth season.

Another major problem for NBC is that when something does work (Smash, potentially Revolution), they don't know how to use the hit.  With Smash, for example, they had a respectable hit on their hands, but as a result, they thought they could go off the air for seven months, when in reality most un-established shows can't suddenly come back from the seven month gap-they can only take the three month gap during the Summer.  When your fans are as a cult-loyal as Lost, Game of Thrones, or 24, you can come back at any point and people will show up, but a first-season show has never hit that sort of level with the audience.  They are oddly doing the same thing with Revolution right now, as it's been off the air for months at a time when it's still establishing its crucial fan base.  Granted, it could end up in the same class as Lost or 24, but it's not there yet.

Lastly, when the other networks stumble across a hit that doesn't necessarily fit with the rest of its shows (for example, Lost on ABC or Bones on FOX, both of which seemed more in-tune with FOX and CBS, respectively), they don't reinvent their entire identity to adapt to it.  The Voice was once a fun, fresh show with a solid chemistry, but if you'd look at NBC now with their reaction to it, you'd be stunned that they have any other shows on their network-seriously, they advertise it every commercial break, and it totally overpowers the rest of their lineup.  NBC has always had this problem-remember how often Dateline used to be on the channel, and looking at their lineup for next week, they will be airing three separate hours of SVU in primetime, only one of which is original?  If they're trying to cultivate an identity (and in this age of a thousand channels, it's a necessity), they can't reinvent themselves when they stumble across a hit.  By all means, embrace it (like ABC with Lost and Bones on FOX), as a hit is a hit is a hit, but don't forget your core audience in the process.

So, to get back to the task at hand, as we've stumbled across a large diatribe at NBC, canning Jay Leno is not the answer unless you have a complete, total goal for your future.  During this article I've tried brainstorming what sort of niche NBC could land itself into, and I'll admit I'm having trouble (if it was easy, we'd all be television executives), but I will say that it starts with realizing that if you're winning, don't take your top player out of the game if he's willing to stick around.  I am by all means not a fan of Jay Leno (I prefer David Letterman, who is smarter and overall an odd fit for CBS considering his persistent critical acclaim, but again, that's an example of a channel not losing its identity because something works, and I in particular prefer Jon Stewart), but there is no arguing with his consistency.  When Conan left, despite his hemorrhaging viewers to CBS, Leno got them back and went back to winning his time slot.  NBC may be worried about Jimmy Fallon moving, but unlike Conan, that seems very unlikely-Fallon has strong roots with the network, as does producer Lorne Michaels, and where is Jimmy going to go?  FOX has had ample opportunity to create a late night show that works, and yet never has, and without a ratings guarantee like Leno, probably wouldn't invest.  Letterman is an institution over at CBS, and Jimmy Kimmel continues to itch up as the It Boy of late night television.  Fallon was not at risk of moving off of NBC, so why not fix your morning show (Matt Lauer has become too toxic for such light-hearted news after the Ann Curry debacle, and probably needs to go in favor of someone like Anderson Cooper), and your primetime broadcast (I think NBC's best bet at this point would be to invest some money and to take some creative risks, trying to pitch to the critics for a while and see what takes off, rather than invest in comfort food losers like 1600 Penn).  Leaving Jay Leno alone makes the most sense, and though he seems obnoxious (seriously, he's making this issue ten times worse, and the man has more money than God, so it's not like he should be hugely complaining), as I said above a hit is a hit is a hit, and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, despite its faults, is one of the few NBC still has left in the pen.