excellent post -
Tim Goodman The Bastard Machine---
NBC: Nothing But Clueless. Knee-jerk fear at the Peacock:
This notion of a reality/game show hour from 8 to 9 p.m. truly shows Zucker's lack of vision and programming acumen. Why blindly limit that hour to non-scripted fare? Sure, reality shows and game shows are cheaper to produce and cost GE less money. Hmmmm. But anyway, has anyone ever tried this in the history of network television? Has there ever been success with this formula? Why does every other network have a scripted hit in the 8 p.m. time slot? Do these questions even need to be asked?
Look, ABC is currently doing something similar to what Zucker is suggesting. It has "Wife Swap" (Mondays - not a hit), "Dancing with the Stars" (Tuesday and Wednesday - hits), "America's Funniest Home Videos" (Fridays - oh, please) and "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" (Sundays - hit) all in the 8 p.m. hour. Results? Mixed. But it also has "Ugly Betty" on Thursdays at 8 p.m., which has turned out to be one the biggest freshman hits of the season and was renewed for a full 22 episodes. If ABC entertainment president Steve McPherson was hamstrung by The Zucker Rules, he'd be out of luck. And you can bet that if McPherson wants to try another scripted series at 8 p.m., he'll do it - without worrying about parent company Disney's bottom line first.
It's hard to imagine that even Zucker believes a genre-specific block from 8 to 9 p.m. is a good idea. Maybe he doesn't. Maybe this is a world-class ass covering because Wright, his boss and the CEO of NBC Universal, thinks the reality and game show idea is brilliant. Wright has proven his lack of programming knowledge relentlessly in the past, and told this to USA Today on Thursday: "Tuesdays and Wednesdays, we're running the best-scripted programming on television, but the audience just isn't there for it."
Boy, that is rich. On Tuesday, NBC has the highly-acclaimed but dead-on-arrival drama "Friday Night Lights" on at 8 p.m. The series has gone up against "House" on Fox, "NCIS" on CBS and "Dancing with the Stars" on ABC - each of them bonafide hits. Perhaps that has something to do with it? You're right, Bob - the audience isn't there because they're watching those other shows, two of which are scripted. On Wednesday, Wright is simply out of his mind, because "30 Rock" and "Twenty Good Years" are both unfunny sitocms - the latter being exceptionally and obviously not funny. Both of those series are being aggessively ignored by viewers, not because they're scripted, but because they're bad.

Maybe the problem at NBC isn't bad programming, it's bad management? Nah, couldn't be. At the very least, the network has had bad luck. "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" got a lot of hype but failed to launch. "Kidnapped" was one of the better serial dramas but got lost in the fall crush. You know what? That happens. Both of those series are/were exceptional. But in the end, the audience always decides. And the audience is fickle. It can not be fully understood. Many network programmers will tell you (in confidence, of course) that they don't know what will or won't work. Television is an inexact science, which is precisely why it's fear based and overrun with paranoia.

huh: Nina Tassler, who's the entertainment president at currently robust CBS, told USA Today that NBC's ideas about the state of television are off base: "They're addressing corporate ills as industry trends, and that's just not the case."

cmmts......
-if you go to the google entertainment news homepage, you can pick your news source to read about this development. it's about half-way down and there are currently 34 articles listed on this topic.
-How ironic is it that NBC decides to get rid of scripted shows from 8-9pm on the same week Studio 60 airs its episode featuring Amanda Peet turning down an opportunity to bid on a can't miss reality hit & instead stealing high end scripted show from HBO.
-Have you ever considered that perhaps this is all just one big meta-commercial for Studio 60 and 30 Rock? Like there will be a big reveal at the end of the season and some kind of synergy that will result in 10 lucky viewers getting a brand new stove? Me either.