General

After the Olympics, NBC Returns to Role of Biggest Loser

Mar 4, 2010, 3:00 PM UTC

Jay Leno crushed all competition – including rival David Letterman – in the first two days back as host of the Tonight Show on NBC. Part of the ratings bump has to be attributed to general curiosity for the first night (heck, I even watched some of it online and I detest Leno), with the second night bump coming in the form of Sarah Palin. But a case can also be made that the incessant plugging of Leno’s return to 11:35 PM during the Olympics may have helped create a little more buzz for the show.â†µ

â†µ Peacock lying in the weeds â†µ

â†µâ†µYet according to TV by the Numbers, NBC hasn’t gotten nearly the post-Olympic bump it was hoping for in prime time to make back some of the hundreds of millions of dollars they lost on the Winter Games. â†µ

â†µâ†µâ‡¥NBC could at least hope that all was not lost, and that generating a good sampling for “The Marriage Ref” and “Parenthood” via constant on-air promotion during the Vancouver coverage would take some of the sting off of the losses.â†µâ‡¥â†µâ‡¥But the words “On par with My Own Worst Enemy” and “Southland” (in debut ratings) clearly illustrate that there’s not too much promotional bang for the buck via the Olympics.â†µâ‡¥
â†µâ‡¥â†µâ‡¥Now Obi Wan Jerry Seinfeld Kenobi’s “The Marriage Ref” is NBC’s only hope for turning the huge lemon of a financial loss into any kind of Lemonade. “The Marriage Ref” got a very good sampling when NBC cut away from the closing ceremonies in Vancouver to air it. But how will it do on Thursday?â†µâ‡¥

â†µâ†µ“The Marriage Ref” was jammed down our throats during the Olympics, and while it showed promise in the ratings, the preview episode was universally crushed by critics and in social media communities. The show officially debuts tonight, so it will be interesting to see how many of the 14.4 million viewers who caught Sunday’s episode will manage to stick around. â†µ

â†µMake no mistake, those numbers are very good for a debut, as the show was the second-highest rated program of the week, if you don't include any Olympics coverage or "American Idol". In fact, the only non-Idol or Olympic telecast that "The Marriage Ref" lost to was CBS's "Undercover Boss", which has continued immense ratings after it's own huge-audience-from-a-sporting-event lead-in. Following the Super Bowl, "Undercover Boss" was seen by more than 38.5 million people.â†µ

â†µâ†µAs for “Parenthood”, that show could be the most telling indictment of NBC’s post-Olympics strength. NBC has been constantly running promos for the show, including interviews with award-winning producers Brian Grazer and Ron Howard. The show is a take on the 1989 hit movie and has a top-notch television cast. (It’s on my DVR, so I cannot yet speak to the quality of the show). The formula is there for this show to be a success, yet with all the Olympic promotion, it debuted with a 3.1 rating for adults 18-49 and just 8.1 million viewers. How is that possible? â†µ

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â†µOne explanation is that NBC's barrage of promotion just didn't work on the average Olympic viewer. Another is that NBC's decisions, including the anger they created by tape-delaying the Games – anger fueled by online and mainstream media alike – has turned people off to the Peacock network altogether. We had to watch NBC to get Olympics coverage, but now that they are over, it's hard to imagine many people returning to their NBC loyalties from years ago. â†µ

â†µâ†µEither way, the post-Olympic bump the network surely had to expect in an effort to recoup some of the $250 million dollars they lost by overbidding for the Winter Games, so far, has not been there. Maybe the network is putting all it’s eggs in the “Minute to Win it” basket. Actually, there is still a chance that “Parenthood” becomes the next great American drama, but according to the early returns, the Olympic promotion hasn”t helped the show at all. If ratings for “The Marriage Ref” aren’t solid tonight, NBC’s post-Olympic prime time programming could be a bust less than a week after it started.â†µ
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â†µâ†µWell, at least Leno’s winning.â†µ

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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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