NBC Just Says No to Future Sitcom Super-Sizing
Smart Programming Decision Spells the End of Irregular Sitcom Lengths
While everyone else weighs in on the just-instated co-chairmen of NBC, network executive Marc Graboff and television producer Ben Silverman, the duo who will replace outgoing entertainment bigwig Kevin Reilly, I’m happy about another late-breaking development at the network. Let’s give it up for shows that air in half-hour increments, without scruffy, stray minutes attached. It’s impossible to fully appreciate just how annoying odd run times can be until you have to remember to turn the channel or set your recorder for a show that begins or concludes at 10:11 instead of the expected 10:00, most often right smack dab in the middle of another show that follows the conventions of predictable and reliable television scheduling.
NBC programming gurus, in their newly acquired wisdom, have decided to return the sanity to their Thursday “Comedy Night Done Right” lineup next season by ceasing and desisting with the unbelievably inconvenient super-sized sitcom specials that were a disruptive, unwelcome addition to the network’s schedule in recent years.
NBC honchos have never made a better choice than to eliminate a previous gimmicky innovation that distressed TV viewers everywhere who carefully schedule their tube sessions based on the more-or-less precise start and end times of shows, and who could not care less about getting an extra three minutes of program, slyly accompanied by one more commercial break with an additional six minutes of advertisements. The name of the game is to have the beginning and conclusion of episodes occur either on the hour or the half hour since it’s a whole lot easier to remember to watch or record a program that starts at 8:00 or 8:30 rather than 8:18 or 8:54.
Come next fall, there will be no more 37½ minute My Name Is Earl episodes, followed by a 42-minute The Office installment and a 39.333-minute Scrubs. Persistently lower ratings have inspired Peacock executives to finally see the light and realize that “it’s just not a good idea to have shows starting at 9:23 p.m.,” in the words of NBC scheduling bossman Vince Manze. Gee, you think?
Pumping up the length of sitcoms to get more bang for the advertising buck may have worked during NBC’s comedy heyday, when series like Frasier, Friends, and The Cosby Show literally annihilated the competition in the ratings. But that era is now merely a wistful memory, something for NBC employees to look back on with extreme fondness and a burning desire to make it a reality again in the future. Until that happens, though, sticking with a traditional half-hour sitcom format is an excellent strategy to avoid driving away what viewers remain.
The elimination of occasional super-sized sitcom episodes will not prevent NBC from experimenting with hour-long installments of The Office next season, however. That popular, award-winning program is an exception to the rule. Yet, even when the white-collar workplace mockumentary is extended, the law of half-hour increments only will remain in effect, to the joy and relief of all its fans.
The Office photo courtesy of NBC
