Although they sound like the most boring on the schedule, executive sessions usually prove to be the most useful, and sometimes, in the case of NBC, the most entertaining.
Days after the departure of co-chairman of NBC Entertainment and Universal Movie Studios Ben Silverman, and Jeff Gaspin, president and COO of the Cable Entertainment Group being named his replacement, NBC bigwigs Angela Bromstad, President of Primetime and Paul Telegdy, Executive VP of Alternative Programming and Production, took the stage at the TCA tour in front of a crowd of snippy journalists.
Not only did Bromstad avoid talking about Canada’s The Listener, the network’s expectations for Jay Leno (“We’re not going to declare a specific rating”) and why SciFi suddenly re-branded itself as SyFy, but she managed to defer questions to “other upcoming sessions” several times.
We did manage to learn the network is using the exact same budget for prime-time programming as it did last year, despite cutting prime-time hours from three to two in order to make way for Leno.
“We didn’t cut our budget,” she affirms. “We’re committed to putting on strong scripted shows and comedies. Every single hour of scripted programming has to count. Does Leno make that easier for us? It does.”
Later on in the session, Bromstad backtracked for the fourth or fifth time, saying, “A big thing for us is that we’ve just allowed shows to get way too expensive, it’s gotten out of control and we have to find a way to get those costs down.”
Other topics from the session included Chuck (still only 13 episodes on tap, still scheduled for a March), Southland (“They tried to do too much in those six episodes”), Sunday Night Football (“Thank God we have Sunday Night Football”) and Friday Night Light’s move to summer (“Unfortunately, it doesn’t have the ratings to justify the fall schedule”).
Telegdy managed to chat about the success of The Biggest Loser, saying it “embraces a concern and a worry that keeps people up at night,” and acknowledged it has found its audience, and admitted he and Mark Burnett are still open to the idea of resurrecting the traditional Apprentice, but for now the celebrity revival has reignited the brand.
When asked if Celebrity would continue its tedious two-hour timeslot, Telegdy had the following to say: “The Apprentice grows in its second hour in a timeslot that's been difficult for us. I'm sorry if you're not a fan, but many people are."
Up next: The cast of new fall series, Community.
Amber is currently reporting live from the TV Critics Press Tour in L.A. Check out complete coverage here. amber@tvguide.ca
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