'Grey's' Isn't Going Anywhere
'Red Widow' Gets The Axe
NBC president Kevin Reilly optimistic about the future - TCA Report
by Joel Keller, posted Jan 18th 2007 10:47AM
Besides announcing the renewal of four shows, NBC Entertainment Kevin Reilly spent his executive session talking about "tent posts" and spewing sports analogies. But all of it said that he was pretty optimistic about the future of his network.He definitely thinks being patient with shows is imperative, especially when you're working from behind as his network is. "Vision is a word that gets thrown around a lot but is in short supply," he spoke of shows like The Office, that started out slow and built audience. "When you got it, grab it." Among his new "vision" shows are 30 Rock, Friday Night Lights, and Studio 60.In fact, he feels 30 Rock is getting that "third heat," echoing a line Alec Baldwin uttered in the show's pilot. "30 Rock is well in it's way; I feel that buzz," he said.
Like ABC's Steve McPherson before him, Reilly acknowledged that there were too many serialized shows on the air this past fall, agreeing with his counterpart that the shows with more serious tones to them were the ones that didn't succeed. As for his own high-profile serial failure, he said "Kidnapped was a disappointment. Never have I been involved in such a gap in talent and performance."
Later in the session, when I asked him about why he didn't keep Kidnapped on Saturdays and have it finish out its run like they promised, he pointed out to me that the show did finish its run online, but even keeping it on Saturdays was hurting the bottom line. "Those ratings points count as well. We wanted to leave Kidnapped there. Unfortunately it just could not make the move, and we were giving up a valuable rating point that we needed."
Other bits:
- The Spike Lee project the network was working on isn't going to happen, due to the ever-present creative differences. "Spike's not someone you do 15 drafts with." The two parties will try again on a different project.
- He did acknowledge that Studio 60 was a polarizing show. And, not that any of the elements that have been on the show so far will get lost completely, but that Aaron Sorkin and the network "have both agreed that we've got great relationships. We got a show here that should be a lot of fun to watch. You know, let's write to that." They're looking to bring back the fans that liked the show but drifted away from it as the fall episodes aired.
- As we all know, Passions is gone, leaving Days of Our Lives as the only soap on the network. And it seems like Reilly isn't completely sold on Days either.
- Reilly thinks DVRs are a small but significant part of their audience, and would like to have those count in the ratings, but those negotiations are ongoing.
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