NBC ends "Super Sizing"....DVR users rejoice
05-29-07 | 02:43 PM
#1
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NBC ends "Super Sizing"....DVR users rejoice
Just as McDonald's has done away with giant boxes of fries and tubs of soda, NBC is ending its practice of "super-sizing" its comedies.
The scheduling gimmick, which extended the network's half-hour comedies by five to 10 minutes with extra footage -- and an extra commercial break -- won't be deployed next season (although "The Office" is still planning several hour-long episodes). Vince Manze, the network's head of scheduling, says super-sizing simply isn't as effective as it once was.
"It was a good idea when we started it. It was very novel. But it's just not a good idea to have shows starting at 9:23 p.m.," Manze tells TV Week. "I don't think anyone here thinks, at this point, super-sizing often is good for the shows. We're going to do our best to not have to do it next year."
The off-the-half-hour scheduling of super-sized episodes was tough to show in TV listings, and if an episode started even a minute or two off its scheduled time it would also mess with DVRs programmed to record them. As Manze puts it, "We're not only fooling people, we're fooling TiVos."
Super-sizing was the brainchild of then-NBC Entertainment president Jeff Zucker, who first extended episodes of "Friends" during the 2000-01 season, in part to keep people from flipping over to "Survivor" on CBS. Other NBC comedies joined the fray later that year, and the network has used the practice occasionally ever since.
NBC is still, however, sticking to its plan to produce five hour-long installments of "The Office" next season. But since each will run a full 60 minutes, the network should be able to avoid odd start and end times for the shows.
The scheduling gimmick, which extended the network's half-hour comedies by five to 10 minutes with extra footage -- and an extra commercial break -- won't be deployed next season (although "The Office" is still planning several hour-long episodes). Vince Manze, the network's head of scheduling, says super-sizing simply isn't as effective as it once was.
"It was a good idea when we started it. It was very novel. But it's just not a good idea to have shows starting at 9:23 p.m.," Manze tells TV Week. "I don't think anyone here thinks, at this point, super-sizing often is good for the shows. We're going to do our best to not have to do it next year."
The off-the-half-hour scheduling of super-sized episodes was tough to show in TV listings, and if an episode started even a minute or two off its scheduled time it would also mess with DVRs programmed to record them. As Manze puts it, "We're not only fooling people, we're fooling TiVos."
Super-sizing was the brainchild of then-NBC Entertainment president Jeff Zucker, who first extended episodes of "Friends" during the 2000-01 season, in part to keep people from flipping over to "Survivor" on CBS. Other NBC comedies joined the fray later that year, and the network has used the practice occasionally ever since.
NBC is still, however, sticking to its plan to produce five hour-long installments of "The Office" next season. But since each will run a full 60 minutes, the network should be able to avoid odd start and end times for the shows.
Good.
05-29-07 | 03:25 PM
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Originally Posted by Meteu185
Unless you have a crappy DVR service, I'm not sure why the Supersizing matters as far as screwing up your recording.
But I also agree that it would be nice if Scrubs didn't consistently get scheduled to end at one past the hour. Now that's annoying!
05-29-07 | 03:26 PM
#6
Originally Posted by Meteu185
Unless you have a crappy DVR service, I'm not sure why the Supersizing matters as far as screwing up your recording.
05-29-07 | 03:27 PM
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Originally Posted by Meteu185
Unless you have a crappy DVR service, I'm not sure why the Supersizing matters as far as screwing up your recording.
It screws it up when you're trying to record two programs at 10pm that aren't on NBC.
05-29-07 | 03:35 PM
#9
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Originally Posted by Septemberbaby
They also need to stop airing stuff that runs a minute passed the hour.
Equally annoying.
Equally annoying.
My DVR never had a problem with these. I guess people with manual DVRs were really the only ones with issues.
05-29-07 | 03:55 PM
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From: Directionally Challenged (for DirecTV)
Originally Posted by Septemberbaby
They also need to stop airing stuff that runs a minute passed the hour.
Equally annoying.
Equally annoying.
That's more annoying because many times it is inaccurate.
05-29-07 | 05:39 PM
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From: Southside Virginia
Originally Posted by wmansir
Translation: Super-sizing only works with hits and we don't have any left.
05-29-07 | 07:28 PM
#13
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Once I got enough DVRs/tuners, I never had a problem with this practice, as long as they changed the schedules to match. It is asking a lot out of the casual viewer, who turns it on at the half hour to see his favorite show, sees that something else is on, and promptly turns the channel.
I DO have a problem with the way freaking Fox handled the American Idol finale... it went over, unscheduled, for 10 minutes...
I DO have a problem with the way freaking Fox handled the American Idol finale... it went over, unscheduled, for 10 minutes...
05-29-07 | 09:42 PM
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Originally Posted by cracksky
Oh, so, five idiots can't figure out how to program a dvr and these guys change their whole network schedule around?
05-29-07 | 10:42 PM
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This is kinda too bad. All the episodes of The Office that got supersized benefited from the extra run time immensely. In fact, most other shows seemed to benefit as well. I don't remember the supersized Earl's or Scrubs being any worse episodes. The Pizza Clock episode of Scrubs is horrible cut down to 22 minutes in syndication
05-30-07 | 01:09 AM
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Originally Posted by her34
if an nbc show ends at 9:05pm or 9:15pm and you have 2 shows scheduled to record on other stations which start at 9:00pm, programming a dvr any which way won't fix the problem for the typical two tuner dvr
05-30-07 | 05:56 AM
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Originally Posted by cracksky
Oh, boo-fucking-hoo. So, you throw a vcr on to record the other show. Look, I've had some real challenges in my day with trying to record/watch four, five things at once with just vcr's, cable and antenna. Never missed a show. Not one second. The fact that you whiny people are actually causing programing changes at NBC is disgusting. YOU make the change not THEM.
05-30-07 | 07:04 AM
#21
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Originally Posted by cracksky
Oh, so, five idiots can't figure out how to program a dvr and these guys change their whole network schedule around?
A Thursday not too long ago had all three of the comedies super-sized and inaccurately scheduled by NBC. NBC apparently sent the time corrections to Tribune the day they aired. Many DVRs only update once per day and missed it.
05-30-07 | 07:29 AM
#22
Originally Posted by cracksky
Oh, boo-fucking-hoo. So, you throw a vcr on to record the other show. Look, I've had some real challenges in my day with trying to record/watch four, five things at once with just vcr's, cable and antenna. Never missed a show. Not one second. The fact that you whiny people are actually causing programing changes at NBC is disgusting. YOU make the change not THEM.
05-30-07 | 08:06 AM
#23
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Originally Posted by cracksky
Oh, boo-fucking-hoo. So, you throw a vcr on to record the other show. Look, I've had some real challenges in my day with trying to record/watch four, five things at once with just vcr's, cable and antenna. Never missed a show. Not one second. The fact that you whiny people are actually causing programing changes at NBC is disgusting. YOU make the change not THEM.
05-30-07 | 08:24 AM
#24
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Originally Posted by fujishig
I DO have a problem with the way freaking Fox handled the American Idol finale... it went over, unscheduled, for 10 minutes...
05-30-07 | 08:26 AM
#25
Originally Posted by cracksky
Oh, boo-fucking-hoo. So, you throw a vcr on to record the other show. Look, I've had some real challenges in my day with trying to record/watch four, five things at once with just vcr's, cable and antenna. Never missed a show. Not one second. The fact that you whiny people are actually causing programing changes at NBC is disgusting. YOU make the change not THEM.
Oh, wait, we're already down to 3x L&O and ER