NBC: Fleeing Viewers Are Network's Fault

By DAVID BAUDER
.c The Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) - The top networks are suffering through a lackluster fall season partly because “some of the programming just sucked,'' NBC's entertainment chief said on Tuesday.

NBC's Jeff Zucker, who has already canned two high-profile new series, said while networks question some of Nielsen Media Research's numbers this year, TV executives need also look in the mirror.

“Our programming is not that good and the Nielsen sample is bad. End of story,'' said Zucker, speaking to the International Radio & Television Society Foundation.

During the first week of the important November sweeps period, CBS was the only one of the six major broadcasters to draw a bigger audience than the same week last year, Nielsen said.

That's consistent with the season as a whole. Fox, which benefited from a thrilling baseball postseason, is the only network to see gains season-to-date.

Zucker cited NBC's “Coupling'' - already canceled - as NBC's biggest mistake of the season. Another series the network had high hopes for, Rob Lowe's “The Lyon's Den,'' has also been taken off the air.

All of the network entertainment chiefs speaking before the IRTS Tuesday directed some anger toward Nielsen. They don't quite believe Nielsen's numbers that say viewership is off 10 percent this season among men aged 18 to 34, a crucial group for advertisers.

Zucker said he doesn't believe it's a coincidence that Nielsen's measurement of young male viewership has increased over the past three weeks after network complaints became public.

Young men, who may have been distracted by DVDs and video games, began returning to TV with the World Series, Nielsen spokesman Jack Loftus said.

Loftus noted that Nielsen received few complaints last year when the company's sample showed an increase in viewership among young men.

“When the numbers are up, it's the programming,'' he said. “When the numbers are down, it's Nielsen.''

Zucker also said the networks had put on several new shows this fall that appealed to females, like NBC's “Miss Match,'' CBS' “Joan of Arcadia'' and ABC's “Karen Sisco'' and “Hope & Faith.''

“Where's `Chuck & Matt'?'' Zucker asked. “If we just keep putting on shows that aren't necessarily going to appeal to young men, we're making a mistake. We're standing at the front of that line.''

Susan Lyne, ABC's entertainment chief, said the lack of any new shows that viewers were anticipating this fall may have reduced viewership in general.

CBS' victory last week was fueled partly by a strong performance by “Survivor,'' which defeated “Friends'' head-to-head for the first time in a year and a half. The CBS 75th anniversary special on Sunday was seen by 18.2 million viewers.

For the week, CBS averaged 13.7 million viewers (9.0 rating, 15 share). NBC was second with 11.3 million viewers (7.6, 12), but won handily among the 18-to-49-year-old viewers that advertisers crave.

ABC had 9.4 million viewers (6.1, 10), Fox 8 million (5.1, 8), the WB 3.9 million (2.7, 4), UPN 3.5 million (2.3, 4) and Pax TV 1 million (0.7, 1).

NBC's “Nightly News'' won the evening news ratings race, averaging 10.8 million viewers (7.6 rating, 15 share). ABC's “World News Tonight'' had 10.5 million (7.3, 14) and the “CBS Evening News'' had 8.3 million (5.8, 11).

A ratings point represents 1,084,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 108.4 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.

For the week of Oct. 27-Nov. 2, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,'' CBS, 27.3 million; “Survivor: Pearl Islands,'' CBS, 20.8 million; “ER,'' NBC, 19.9 million; “Friends,'' NBC, 19.4 million; “Everybody Loves Raymond,'' CBS, 18.3 million; “CBS at 75,'' CBS, 18.2 million; “CSI: Miami,'' 17 million; “The Simpsons,'' Fox, 16.2 million; “Law & Order,'' NBC, 16.2 million; “Will & Grace,'' NBC, 15.9 million.

Originally posted by Red Dog
What do you expect when networks cancel male oriented shows like Fastlane and Titus.

Young men, who may have been distracted by DVDs and video games, began returning to TV with the World Series, Nielsen spokesman Jack Loftus said.

Originally posted by B.A.hist
And Andy Richter Saves the Universe, and...oh screw it - we could compile this list for days on end.

Originally posted by Rogue588
Zucker cited NBC's “Coupling'' - already canceled

Originally posted by cheapskate


Yeah, the World Series came on and suddenly, as a young man, I lost all interest in DVD's and video games... and came crawling back to network television...



DVD's and video games are so five minutes ago...

Originally posted by spainlinx0
I'm a little annoyed that he cites the fact that they aren't putting on shows that appeal to men. When you try to target a show at a specific audience, instead of targetting making a great show, you end up putting the stuff on TV that we have today.

Originally posted by Red Dog
If you don't do any targeting, you will end up with Law & Orders and CSIs on every network in every timeslot.

Targeting demographics is very important.