Boob Tube Boobs

D'oh! A terrible fall season at NBC is forcing the network to consider scaling back the number of hours it airs programming, Chief Executive Jeff Zucker told an investor conference Monday. While NBC will continue to fund the creation of pilots, Zucker told analysts at a media investor conference sponsored by UBS that NBC is considering cutting the number of hours or perhaps even the number of nights it provides programming. Less isn’t more, Mr. Zucker. Then again, it’s cowardly, wrong-headed decisions like Zucker’s that perpetuate the vicious cycle of diminishing ratings in the first place. If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, then the same thing can be said about mediocrity. How many shows about cops, doctors, spies and lawyers can you do? But the idea of doing something different terrifies Zucker and his herd of sheep taking up space at NBC’s executive offices. Originality turns them into Sir Robin screaming "Run Away! Run Away!" in Monty Python's Search For The Holy Grail Still, NBC isn’t any different from the other two major networks in their disdain for anything that’s unique and groundbreaking. Any TV series that show even a molecule of originality are always at risk of either being canceled, switched around to different time slots on different days, put on "hiatus", or disfigured by clueless executives. (Whatever did happen to the gay woman on Gray’s Anatomy anyway?) Sure, House, CSI, and Without A Trace aren’t bad, but The Big Three being what they are, network guys will keep these shows on longer than they should so they can squeeze the last drop of creativity that made us appreciate these shows in the first place. How watchable is Law and Order lately? When a generic, proud-to-be-stupid sitcom like The World According To Jim gets renewed for an eight season while Friday Night Lights teeters on the edge of cancellation every week, it’s no surprise that people will go someplace else to watch programs that won’t insult their intelligence. To put it bluntly, the growing exodus of TV audiences from The Big Three networks is their own fault. I’d guarantee you that if innovative programs like Dexter, Breaking Bad, The Wire, In Treatment, Weeds, and others were brought to ABC, NBC, or CBS, they would have passed on every one of them. That certainly was the case with The Sopranos when David Chase shopped his mob drama for years before it found a home at HBO. We saw how that turned out, didn’t we? You’d think Mr. Zucker would learn that if you make a better TV show, the viewers will come. He’ll probably ask the government for a bailout instead.