NBC continues to stand behind Aaron Sorkin's "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" in the wake of continuing speculation that disappointing ratings threaten to knock one of its flagship new fall shows off the air.
The latest round of rumors followed a weekend report from a Fox News Web site that said the highly promoted and expensive series faced "imminent" cancellation.
Not true, say NBC officials, who ordered three more scripts for the series last week and are expected to decide soon whether to produce more episodes for the spring.
"I'm sitting here right now with some very good television shows that I think have a lot of promise that need to be nurtured a little bit," said NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly in reference to "Studio 60," "30 Rock" and "Friday Night Lights." "I'm pulling for these shows."
I hope Kevin Reilly means what he says above. Seems to me I remember thinking he came off well in Bill Carter's last book. Speaking of books, I reread Grant Tinker's book recently. He was the chairman of NBC in the early-to-mid '80s who bought shows like The Cosby Show, St. Elsewhere, and Cheers.
These and others became profitable Emmy-winners for NBC that decade. And he supported those, like the latter two, that didn't produce the hoped-for ratings right out of the gate. Here's hoping Reilly's taking his cue for patience from him.
Although, last night's episode of Studio 60 had me questioning my own commitment to the show-I thought it ran out of air about halfway through. And procceded to slide downwards into a near-unintentional-satire of bad TV (the kind where they tell you everything three times).
But one bad episode does not mean I'm giving up. And it might not even have been a bad episode. It occured to me last night that maybe I'm preparing for the anticipated "pain" of a cancellation by finding fault.
"See! Maybe it really wasn't that good, after all."
PS: Although, Kevin, if you have to give one the chop, I don't think anyone's really going to miss 30 Rock...
2 comments:
If Seinfeld premiered now, it'd have run the first season of four episodes and we'd never had the genius that it was for nine years. And that would be just sad...
To tell you the truth I always thought Seinfeld was kinda overrated.
As '90s sitcoms go, NewsRadio, Drew Carey, Mad About You and even Friends are more my cup of tea.
Which doesn't change your general point, of course. There are a lot of shows like that-Hill Street Blues is another-we think of them as classic now, but when they premiered...
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