NBC is Considering Cutting an Hour of Primetime
 

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv...me-1235206737/

Fox and the CW already do this. If NBC cuts the 10PM Eastern/9PM Central hour will ABC and CBS follow them? As someone that works for a local tv station, it would generate more revenue for local stations. They would essentially have an hour or 90 minute newscast from 10PM to 1130PM or the networks could give them the hour and start the late night talk shows 30 minutes earlier.

Re: NBC is Considering Cutting an Hour of Primetime
 

That would hurt the Law and Orders and the Chicago shows. Since they all air the same day, they would have to move one. That is of course if they continue to air beyond this season.

But I’m guessing if this happens, it wouldn’t happen until 2023-24.

Re: NBC is Considering Cutting an Hour of Primetime
 

The article says it won't happen until the 2023-2024 season since the schedule for the 2022-2023 season is already locked in.

Re: NBC is Considering Cutting an Hour of Primetime
 

I understand the benefit for the local stations running local programming, but what's in it for NBC? They just don't want to create as much content?

Re: NBC is Considering Cutting an Hour of Primetime
 

Re: NBC is Considering Cutting an Hour of Primetime
 

In a streaming world, broadcast television networks are kind of a relic (save for news, sports, live entertainment, and not by all that much), save for low-income and no- or spotty-Internet areas. I expect the contraction to continue rapidly in the next decade.

Re: NBC is Considering Cutting an Hour of Primetime
 

Linear TV ratings have become abysmal over the last 10 to 15 years. Without much ad money for live TV, it’s probably becoming too expensive to continue to make new scripted content 3 hours per day, 6 days per week.

Remember when this forum used to cared about linear TV ratings?

Re: NBC is Considering Cutting an Hour of Primetime
 

I guess I always assumed that the content could go to streaming like right after, giving more content to streaming without having to fund a lot separately.

Re: NBC is Considering Cutting an Hour of Primetime
 

I watch everything via Hulu DVR or On Demand, so the actual timeslot doesn't matter to me. My local NBC station has the best local news crew, so a change would be a positive for me.

Re: NBC is Considering Cutting an Hour of Primetime
 

Makes perfect sense, but I would like to see them devote what they consider to be a lost hour to serious news analysis and in-depth, long-form coverage. Y'know because their broadcast licenses say they are supposed to be serving the public interest.

Re: NBC is Considering Cutting an Hour of Primetime
 

Network TV still heavily relies on the Nielsen rating ad revenue business model. It’s how these shows are paid for unlike premium cable or Subscription video on demand. Otherwise who is going to fund these network shows? After initial airing services like Hulu or Peacock aren’t paying the bills.

Re: NBC is Considering Cutting an Hour of Primetime
 

I don't watch the CW but it's nice to see the news an hour earlier. Especially for the weather.

Re: NBC is Considering Cutting an Hour of Primetime
 

I see this as only being a good thing if it means less shitty network TV shows in the world.

It's bound to happen eventually anyway but I'm surprised to see it start already. There is barely anything of quality being made by the networks. The shows they decide to pick up during pilot season are NEVER the best ones. While I hate to see less jobs for productions staff and actors and writers, it could also mean the bar gets raised a little for quality.

Re: NBC is Considering Cutting an Hour of Primetime
 

And they brought that on entirely themselves- first with screen clutter, then by increasing commercial time to ridiculous levels. As I said in another thread in over 25 YEARS I haven't seen a single shred of evidence of what good keeping network logos constantly onscreen has done, but that single-handedly made me stop watching. NBC was my favorite network back in the day also, and I was shocked that they ended up being the first of the "big 3" to adopt that practice. NBC was the first network with color and then stereo, but intentionally defacing the picture made the advance to hi-def pointless. I didn't even get an HDTV until after Blu-Ray won the format war. As for commercials, I know that's where the money comes from but there are simply too many now. There used to be just ten minutes of commercials per hour, and the breaks were usually tastefully placed. Now it seems like you get about 7 minutes of show, then 5 minutes of commercials. Meanwhile there's plenty of alternatives out there without any of these annoyances. You'd think SOMEBODY on the inside would know that they're putting viewers off. It seems the only thing they've done is get rid of breaks between shows, which is at least something but not enough.

The only thing I watch broadcast TV for now is news, or anything that demands to be seen LIVE as it's happening. News has its flaws but it's at least somewhat useful, I'd welcome another hour of that and less of what NBC has sadly become.

Re: NBC is Considering Cutting an Hour of Primetime
 

According to Hulu run times, When NYPD Blue started in 1993, episodes were 48 min and dropped to 44/45 by 1999. When SVU started in 1999, eps were mostly 44, now they are down to 42 minutes.

Re: NBC is Considering Cutting an Hour of Primetime
 

That’s funny. Watching my Friends box set, in 1994, they’re about 24 mins per episode.

In later seasons it’s only 20 minutes, and just barely.

Re: NBC is Considering Cutting an Hour of Primetime
 

Move the 10pm show to 9pm the next day, order another spinoff.

Solved. And likely.

Re: NBC is Considering Cutting an Hour of Primetime
 

Right. Which makes sense as Broadcast became less profitable.

Reduce the runtime = same money on production of the episode
Increased ads = increased revenue

It makes total sense. Fox changed things for a year or two with longer episodes (Dollhouse, Fringe) where the advertisers paid more money for the ads but less of them...or something like that.

Re: NBC is Considering Cutting an Hour of Primetime
 

But nobody is going to want to advertise if nobody is watching. Always wonder who watches infomercials though. We still have one sub channel here that shows those 24/7, there used to be 2 others but they’re gone now.

Re: NBC is Considering Cutting an Hour of Primetime
 

Plenty of the older folks watch broadcast. The demo is going up fast, but they be watching.

Anyone else just watches the shows on the streaming service and don't even know The Resident airs on Fox and not Hulu.

Re: NBC is Considering Cutting an Hour of Primetime
 

I see that I'll only be watching 3 hours of NBC primetime in the fall, and one of those shows (New Amsterdam) is ending anyway. La Brea is only 14 episodes and Quantum Leap could end up cancelled. Mid-season, I'll be watching The Blacklist, which hopefully ends with the season), and some of the returning sitcoms. I wouldn't mind if all of these went away so it's fine by me if they cut the hours and lose some shows.

I guess we won't see another "This is Us" from NBC. If they ever reboot or revive The Office, it'll probably be on Peacock.

Re: NBC is Considering Cutting an Hour of Primetime
 

My friends' parents have Direct TV and (at least) Hulu and Netflix, and they still watch broadcast Wheel of Fortune every night and reruns on MeTV a lot.

Re: NBC is Considering Cutting an Hour of Primetime
 

Not a watcher of the series, but I thought The Blacklist ended two years ago.

Re: NBC is Considering Cutting an Hour of Primetime
 

It airs on Friday nights


It would be sad and think of all the great NBC shows that aired at 10pm like ER, Miami Vice, Law & Order, St Elsewhere, Parenthood, etc.

Who needs one more hour of local newscasts when they have the 5pm, 6pm, 7pm and 11pm news?

Re: NBC is Considering Cutting an Hour of Primetime
 

It would be nice to have 24-hour news on broadcast TV; Newsy kinda does that but it seems second-rate. Still too many commercials during the news but at least it's live.

Re: NBC is Considering Cutting an Hour of Primetime
 

I explained that in that same thread - it’s for branding, station identification and to watermark content so it doesn’t get reshared without it.

There are people at every affiliate who’s job it is to determine what to program on air. If those overnight shows didn’t do what they needed to do, they’d be pulled.

I can’t even imagine the staffing nightmare that would be, not to mention the ratings mess it would cause. TV stations across the country have been downsizing for decades. That’s why most reporters are also their own photographers these days (called MMJs…multi-media journalists). That’s just one example and there are a lot more. Not to mention the fact that there is not enough local content in 99% of the markets to make 24 -hour local news profitable.

Re: NBC is Considering Cutting an Hour of Primetime
 

We already have 2-3 hours of local news here in the afternoon/evening. Do we really need another 90 minutes of "local" news, made up of endless teases and canned national stories of questionable validity.

It's either that or more Big Bang Theory reruns.

I guess streaming is killing scheduled non-live event television faster than expected.

Re: NBC is Considering Cutting an Hour of Primetime
 

This doesn't matter anymore. The people where this ^ is of great importance, will have died from natural causes or be inflicted with dementia / alzheimer over the next decade or two.

Excluding the case of tv/entertainment/popculture historians, it is of no importance any longer when there is no living memory of the 10pm prime time heydays (whether due to death or the inability to remember anything).

Re: NBC is Considering Cutting an Hour of Primetime
 

There is NBC News Now and CBS and ABC have their own streaming channels where all they show is news.

Re: NBC is Considering Cutting an Hour of Primetime
 

Changing times, indeed. I also believe another factor is playing into this - supposedly 10 PM is the biggest viewership for most streaming services aimed at adults.

Re: NBC is Considering Cutting an Hour of Primetime
 

"Explained" with ZERO proof of it having the desired effect or evidence of any effect whatsoever, as usual. Truth is most people just don't notice them, but it's destroyed the credibility of everyone in the business.

Re: NBC is Considering Cutting an Hour of Primetime
 

Do you a have precise definition of "credibility" in this context ?

Re: NBC is Considering Cutting an Hour of Primetime
 

I think we're getting a little off base on the point of this news. NBC is considering....only considering cutting the 10pm hour to save money. Like I said earlier in the thread, linear TV ratings are way down, which affects ad money to pay for the programming. But, that can be mainly attributed to us developing an on demand/time shift culture to watching content over the last 10-15 years due to DVRs and later online viewing/streaming services. Chicago PD can air their newest episode on Wednesday at 10pm, but if people aren't watching it until days, weeks, months later, that doesn't help the network and help keep the show on the air. And greenlighting a 13-22 episode season of network TV is not cheap. Programming is only getting more and more expensive as the years go by. NBC, the network, still survives on ad revenue and in some cases re-transmission fees.

Re: NBC is Considering Cutting an Hour of Primetime
 

Do you have a link to any recent articles about nielsen ratings which asserts that the 10PM slot is very popular for streaming services ?

Or is this just personal speculation / supposition on your part ?

Re: NBC is Considering Cutting an Hour of Primetime
 

Do you actually think that TV networks and local stations just DO things without following up to see if they work or not? Like it's just to piss you off?

I'm not saying everything is a perfect decision but if it wasn't effective to have the bug on-screen, then they wouldn't do it. It's one extra thing that needs to be implemented, checked, updated, etc. and it's not for funsies. And if you think a logo "destroys the credibility" of everyone in that business, you are simply proving you have absolutely no idea how that business works.

Re: NBC is Considering Cutting an Hour of Primetime
 

You seem to be such an expert on it, quit beating around the bush and tell us what good it’s been doing them. Some data on it has got to exist somewhere, even if it’s being kept top secret.

Meanwhile there’s plenty of data now that TV viewing is way down, I don’t think this annoyance has been helping matters any.

Re: NBC is Considering Cutting an Hour of Primetime
 

Ironic how Alan Smithee has not defined what "credibility" means in this context.

:spade:

Re: NBC is Considering Cutting an Hour of Primetime
 

It’s not like they publish studies. But logically I can see that watermarking your content is a good thing when it gets shared all over the internet. And again, you don’t do something like this without some benefit. Even flipping from channel to channel, the viewer can quickly see what station they are on. That’s a good thing for everyone.

Some TV viewing is down and some is up. With the plethora of options out there, it’s more important than ever to make sure viewers know where what they are watching is coming from. The show I work for has had a bug for 15 years and I’ve never heard one complaint about it (and viewers complain about everything) AND our ratings are higher than ever.

Re: NBC is Considering Cutting an Hour of Primetime
 

Go ahead and cut the hours. I doubt anyone would notice with shuffling show times and dates all the time. People will just think it is that.

Re: NBC is Considering Cutting an Hour of Primetime
 

Probably .001% of people who watch TVs are as offended as you about the stupid network bugs.