Categorized | Broadcast TV

Trying To Protect Conan, NBC Moves The Wanted To 9pm

Posted on 23 July 2009 by Bill Gorman

The first installment of NBC’s “terrorist hunt” show The Wanted did dreadfully on Monday, drawing an embarrassing 0.8 adults 18-49 demo overnight rating. It seems that NBC believes it may have hurt Conan O’Brien’s Tonight Show that night, so it’s being pushed to 9pm, so the more typical (and almost certainly better rated) 10pm show Dateline can take its place. In the same vein, tonight is the final episode of The Listener that NBC will air for perhaps the same reason. It was yanked to be replaced by Law & Order repeats.

At some point after you’ve thrown everything out of the basket to try and get the balloon to rise, there isn’t anything left to jettison. What happens then?

Here is NBC’s press release:

“THE WANTED” TO AIR MONDAY, JULY 27 AT 9 PM ET

July 23, 2009, New York, N.Y. – The second installment of “The Wanted,” a groundbreaking television event that sets forth on an international hunt for an accused terrorist will air Monday, July 27 at 9 PM ET.

“The Wanted” brings together an elite team with backgrounds in intelligence, unconventional warfare and investigative journalism. The show focuses on real operators, in search of real targets — all in an effort to see individuals brought to justice.

In the July 27 episode, viewers will travel to Germany on the trail of Mamoun Darkazanli. Called “Bin Laden’s financier,” Spanish officials indicted Darkazanli in 2003 for providing logistical and financial support to Al Qaeda, specifically in connection with 9/11. Still he remains free in Germany. While the team surveils Darkazanli, negotiations for his deportation begin between Spain and Germany.

The faces of “The Wanted” include Roger Carstens who is recognized as one of the world’s preeminent authorities on counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency; former Navy Seal Scott Tyler, an expert in urban reconnaissance and unconventional warfare; David Crane a decorated former US intelligence official and former international chief prosecutor — the first American to serve as Chief Prosecutor of an international war crimes tribunal since Justice Robert Jackson at Nuremberg; and Emmy award-winning investigative journalist Adam Ciralsky. Ciralsky also serves as co-executive producer of “The Wanted” with documentary filmmaker Charlie Ebersol.

Executive Producers and Co-Creators Charlie Ebersol and Adam Ciralsky said, “We are excited about our groundbreaking new TV project ‘The Wanted’ on NBC, and know that viewers will be intrigued by the show.” Ebersol and Ciralsky added, “It’s like nothing you’ve ever seen on TV before. The pairing of rigorous investigative journalism with high-end production values has resulted in a fast-paced show which we hope will leave viewers wanting more.”

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  • Debbie
    If I have to watch Conan clap his hands every 15 seconds during his monologe, hide from the camera, do ridiculous jumps, and other childish antics, I will shoot myself. Again, who said he was funny? I want a good, crisp monologe from my talk show hosts.
  • Byron
    Hello Nbc I am in the centeral time zone it's 9:00 p.m. hear not 10 don' we count in your rating.
  • gino70
    Bill, having worked in Cable TV for more than 30 years I can tell you that people switch to their favorite local news, no matter what they were watching before the news. The idea that someone would just watch whatever news comes on went away with the introduction of TV remotes. Don't believe me but ask your non-media friends what news they watch and you'll be surprised what you will hear. BTW as a former employee of GE's STV division the reason that NBC doesn't know which way is up is because it belongs to GE. Anyone whom has worked for GE knows that GE stands for Generally Eratic.
  • I didn't know anything about this show "The Wanted" until I heard an interview of one of the actors Monday. I think this show is an idiot's idea. As an American, I am deeply embarrassed. If the show's producers want to find internationally famous unindicted war criminals, they don't have to go to Norway. They can find one of the top ten in Crawford, Texas.
  • GuBYE-CONAN!
    Hey dude ! Don't delete my tag ! It's the truth ! CONAN was a "FLASH IN THE PAN", that's IT. Hand me the remote. The TONIGHT SHOW is OVER ! Thanks for the memories Jay, ...Johnny !
  • Holly
    LOL
  • Holly
    At some point after you’ve thrown everything out of the basket to try and get the balloon to rise, there isn’t anything left to jettison. What happens then?

    You put on 5 hours of Leno?
  • Michael, not that I am aware of, I haven't seen any NBC press releases changing next Thursday's schedule, yet again. As far as I still know, The Listener is done on NBC.
  • Michael
    I just got through watching the Listener, and there was an ad for next week. Has NBC changed its mind about airing the remaining episodes?
  • Chris the TV Sage
    Shem, I give that 0% chance of happening.
  • kev
    its tru i dont understand why ppl keep giving NBC alot of heat. NBC has great programming but their problem is their ability to set a decent enough schedule to fit those programs on. Maybe if they shifted some of their shows around they'll b ok. Plus i disagree on that Jay Leno show crap, why would u want to put him 5 days a week?? eventually ppl will get tired of him. Maybe probably they are trying to stand out since the other networks either air crime shows or shows that are kind of "dark" around that time. They shud do that like at leas 2-3 days a week. im sure thats economical bill dont u tink?
  • jason
    Adam, the most illogical network is The CW not NBC.
  • sam
    Next week on Wanted: The team will search for NBC viewers
  • Shem
    I heard somewhere that NBC will air repeats of the Tonight Show with Jay Leno later in the month @ 10pm; is this true?
  • Josh
    Dear Anonymous: they will put Leno back on the Tonight show and say to Conan, seeya in the year 3000.
  • Anonymous
    Here's my concern/question:

    *IF* NBC pulled this show to protect Conan....what will NBC do if/when Leno debuts at 10pm and pulls a 1 demo? They won't be able to pull Leno from 10pm, NO WAY. So what will NBC do THEN??
  • Jeff G
    This release was nothing but a sales pitch.
  • ryan
    why does nbc have to ruin a night that was doing okay for the network?? It was doing fine with L&O, CI, and dateline, but they have to ruin it so the great american road trip could do even worse and the Wanted which no one watches.
  • TSA
    I don't get it, where do you get the idea this has anything to do with Conan? I realize that even if it did have something to do with him, the press release wouldn't come right out and say so, but still, I never would have thought to connect this to Conan.

    To those who don't get what 10 pm has to do with 11:35 pm, 10 pm shows are the lead-in to the local news. Most people will just watch whichever local news is on after their favorite primetime shows. Since there's rarely enough local news for the different stations to be able to offer different stories, it's rare for people to switch channels just to see a different station's local news after whatever they watched at 10 is over. Now ever since Leno started beating Dave back in the mid-late '90s, it's been a network belief that this 10 pm lead-in is carried all the way to the 11:30 shows. I'm not sure I agree with that, especially since Letterman never rebounded past Leno even when CBS primetime started beating NBC primetime.

    Ken, Conan's numbers in the younger demos have been significantly lower than Leno's (shockingly) anyway.
  • Mikey
    I'm sure they have great data to point to moving shows around to do better. But here's the thing: it is now too hard for me to watch a show. I never know when it will be on, and the chances are better than 50% that it will be cancelled anyway. Far easier to wait for the DVD, if any, and give up on TV entirely. The networks (broadcast and cable) are pushing us all to other media. I give television another 10 years at the most.
  • MichaelJA
    I believe the data they have ties into people not changing the channel after a 10pm show and maybe just drifting off to sleep with the tv on ergo ratings for the latenight 11:35 show.
  • ken
    I thought the idea was to bring in Conan as he draws a younger demographic than Leno, how does it help him to place him close to shows like dateline and L & O both of which tend to older audiences. Yeah it's summer, but does't NBC have anything that would attract the younger demographic than these two shows, unless NBC is trying to rebuild the older demos that it lost when Leno moved on.
  • DenverDean
    I wonder if they'll move Jay back this fall. LOL
  • Hey, we're talking about NBC here, not exactly the most logical network ;)
  • Catherine
    That would be a refreshing admission, Bill.
  • Adam, NBC couldn't care less about ratings for The Wanted itself. It only contracted for two episodes, so the second is almost *certainly* its last one. Of course there is no mention of Conan in the press release, what would you expect "This show is doing dreadfully and we think it might be hurting Conan, so we're moving it?" ;)
  • I still don't see the connection. Maybe NBC just doesn't want to go head-to-head against a repeat of CSI Miami and ABC's Dating in the Dark. That makes more sense.

    By the way, in the press release, there's no mention of Conan.
  • Jamie
    the only thing hurting conan is his lack of being funny.
  • Adam, Nielsen's paying customers get more data than we do. Networks either have data to back up the theory that 10pm hours effect 11:30pm ratings, or they *believe* they do. Whichever is the case *I* don't have the data to figure it out.
  • Catherine
    The assumption is that people are lazy and will continue watching the news on the last channel watched. Must be some data on that since years ago Letterman admonished CBS to get stronger 10 p.m. shows so that people would continue watching CBS affiliate news and just keep on watching his show when it came on. CBS did get stronger 10 p.m. shows but not sure if that did help Letterman's numbers then. Anyway that is the theory.
  • Meli
    Me either, Adam. Maybe I'm from the old school and remember Johnny Carson too much, but even when NBC was doing dreadfully in the ratings back then Carson didn't need to have shows removed or cancelled to protect his ratings. And Leno didn't need that either. So what's going to be NBC's excuse later?
  • How can it hurt Conan when there's news between the two? I don't get it...
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