As soon as the show Day One was announced, the comparisons to Jericho were inevitable. You hear the words “post-apocalyptic” and that’s just where it leads. But it is interesting to hearAngela Bromstad fairly honestly expressing a lack of high hopes. From SciFi Wire:
NBC’s upcoming post-apocalyptic series Day One isn’t due until 2010, but network executives are already suggesting it may be short-lived.
“We’ve always looked at Day One as a big event for us and not necessarily a show that would be an ongoing, returning show for a second season,” NBC president of prime time entertainment Angela Bromstad said in a press conference today in Pasadena, Calif., as part of the Television Critics Association summer press tour. “It would depend on its success. Just by nature of the genre, they always then get a little narrow, and whether or not we can sustain it on the air …”
Narrow-casting is for cable! I have little doubt whether true or not any ratings failure will be blamed on Ben Silverman
In a separate article on SciFi Wire it’s suggested that the better comparison for Day One might be ABC’s forthcoming remake of V rather than Jericho.
P.S. I know there was a lot of talk out of Comic-Con about the possibility of Chuck coming back sooner than its schedule arrival of season three in March, but It doesn’t sound like Bromstad has any interest at all in doing so. It sounds like a show or two will have to fail big and early for it to even be considered.
The more interesting comments, to me, were on Chuck:
It’s not scheduled to come on until March. … It’s something we might allow to run over into our summer programming.” After the panel, Bromstad said she hoped fan loyalty will help sustain the show’s ratings, and explained that for fall, “we wanted to put on as many new shows as possible.” –THR
Hmmm. Running into summer. Watch the average go down to the basement. Not good news for Chuck fans.
Nice spin Angela. There was so much of it at her panel. And other stuff which was totally cringe-worthy. NBC is just… done. They’ve absolutely no idea what they’re doing.
@ Andrea – I’ve no issue with Chuck S3 running in the summer. It’s about time someone took some initiative and put something good on TV In the summer anyways. “Summertime TV is bad because no one watches / No one watches because summertime TV is bad” – but look at shows on second tier cable like Eureka, or on HBO like True Blood – and you’ll see they score ‘big ratings’ (for their network) in the summertime just fine.
Personally, I’m dying for something to watch. Unfortunately, baseball tends to win out over everything else right now, since cable is a wasteland of horrible television in the summer. NBC knows this – and plays horrible miniseries like ‘the storm’ and ‘meteor’ that get twice as much ratings as they would during peak season simply because nothing else is on.
As for ‘Day One’… narrow premise – from a title standpoint. What are they going to do when it becomes ‘day two’? I’m still planning to watch, but I have low expectations. I know you can do awesome things with the setting (Battlestar Galactica-esque… on Earth!) but I don’t think tv execs will allow it to live without way too much meddling.
“It sounds like a show or two will have to fail big and early for it to even be considered.”
This is NBC. They should be able to accomplish that by October. Maybe earlier.
they said this would be a 13 episode mini series / special event ALA Harper’s Island from the start
It almost sounds like NBC has buyers remorse for this show.
Even at the upfront NBC was saying that Day One was designed as a limited run show. Heck, I vaguely recall a pilot review article (i.e. pre-pick up) stating the same thing.
Now, the bigger point, of narrow vs. broad casting, suggesting that sci-fi is probably dead at NBC for the foreseeable future (and what that implies for the chances of Heroes, Day One, & Chuck for the 10/11 season) is worth emphasizing.
And Chuck could indeed come back earlier than March… but the timeslots, and the timing, will be a problem. The only real timeslots that have any chance of being yanked early are Trauma & Mercy. (Friday Night Lights gets Southland’s slot as soon as they air their 13 episode order, and we all know it.) Let’s say Mercy is DOA, and gets yanked in late November/early December. Would NBC bring Chuck back early just to wither during the dead months of December & January? Possibly, but it seems easier to fill in a reality show or newsmagazine there for those weeks and air those 13 (and only 13, unless someone writes a big check) Chucks starting in March as planned.
P.S. Have you seen the trailer for Day One? The writing and acting look abysmal. Even if NBC hadn’t grown allergic to sci-fi, it wouldn’t make it back next year.
I hate the jerricho fans (not all of the fans) who go on like Jerricho was the first post-apocolyptic show, what about the british show Survivors (the original) aired decades before Jerricho. Even so I think that for shows like Day One whats wrong when people constantly say it will be bad, Jeph Leob is known for being a great writer (apart from Heroes season three but that was Tim Kring), so why are people so pessimistic. Yes the trailer has some bad bits but some characters look okay; what will be important is for people to watch the show and decide then (like when Heroes first came out it was nothing like X-Men but thats what people said). However there will still be people that say well Day One is like Jerricho, genre or premise doesn’t mean a show is a rip off or will be the same. Its like saying The Wire is the same as Southland because its about cops (well The Wire is about more than cops but you get the point).
nbc should be committed to the show they picked up
look what happen to kings, and crusoe? 30 seconds spot doesnt appeal viewers anymore.
the problem of nbc is they dont know how to market a new show, they basically stop promoting the show 2 weeks after the pilot aired, they only care about ads revenue and demo ratings, nbc executives are clueless and have no knowledge on how to manage a network and producing a hit show, they keep making the same mistake they never learn
the key on making a show a hit is being committed and treating it right
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Angela Bromstad, NBC president of primetime entertainment said at the TCA
“I think we have fallen short in the past couple of years and it is our goal to bring back those high quality sophisticated dramas and comedies and a brand of alternative programing”
ummm… The Jay Leno Show 5 times a week?
Chuck Chuck Chuck. Why all the fuss over this show that will so obviously be a summer burn off schedule hole filler of a 3rd season?
Now that Silverman is out hopefully the heads at NBC will rid their schedule of low rated crap like chuck and Friday Night Lights.
This is what Bromstad said in March about Day One:
http://www.thrfeed.com/2009/03/nbc-to-renew-heroes.html
“‘Day One’ is a big event and we’re looking at that to come into the ‘Heroes’ spot,” Bromstad said. “It’s right now being looked at as a 13-episode run — something people could commit to and we could make a big splash with.”
If “Day One” does launch in the “Heroes” time period, “One” would get the advantage of its strong sci-fi-established slot for a number of weeks. With a slightly shorter episode order, “Heroes” can then continue its usual pattern of airing with few breaks by virtue of debuting later in the season. A second potential home for “Day One” is on Sundays, she said, where quasi-futuristic “Kings” will premiere March 15.
And look where Kings ended up. So clearly Day One is not being considered as a full series, but an “event” which MIGHT become a series.
I just watched the trailer. The special effects were excellent – BUT presumably all that occurs in the first half hour or so. The expense of such effects will mean that you won’t see them much after that. So it becomes a bunch of people wandering around some crapped out buildings for the rest of the episodes.
It will be like watching TSCC set entirely in the future sets they used. Can you say BORING? I knew you could. Blasted out wastelands are BORING!
And the plot concept? Some woman “picks” some members of an apartment building to “save this world”? WTF?
I see this ending up precisely where Kings ended up – being burned off on Saturdays and Sundays.
when i first read about this show the first thing i thought was jerico (i’m not a fan of the show thought) and so were a lot of other people but then when i saw the preview i thought cloverfield or V and so did a few other people who saw the preview
i think i’ll watch it because its taking the heroes and i really like sci fi stuff
Why Richard Steven Hack do u have to compare EVERYTHING to TSCC? We get it u didnt like the show and u got ur wish it was axed. Can u forget about it now and move on. Still bashing a show that was axed is pathetic.
@Brian: “but look at shows on second tier cable like Eureka, or on HBO like True Blood – and you’ll see they score ‘big ratings’ (for their network) in the summertime just fine.”
Don’t forget Syfy’s new home-grown show “Warehouse 13″ which has been pulling Eureka like numbers since its debut. It’s not a bad little show, which in time could turn into a little gem like Eureka.
Tom is correct, it’s always been referred to as a miniseries (at least in all the interviews with the creators I’ve read). Of course, on the off chance that it becomes a hit I’m sure NBC will want another season. I’ll definitely check it out, there are a lot of talented people involved (of course, the fact that most of them are coming off faltering/failed shows – Heroes, Kings, etc. – has to be worrying NBC a little).
I also agree that I don’t see Chuck getting bumped up into fall. NBC’s schedule is so lean that I’m not sure it can be tinkered with, and I’m guessing that if something fails they’ll probably just ride it out. The fact that special Deal Or No Deal episodes didn’t do so hot last season could be a big factor in NBC not pulling shows early.
Anything is possible at NBC. I’m wondering how many new shows will get canned before 6 episodes air. Their schedule is terrible, show offerings suck.. and now that they run Jay every night at 10/9…
If they only aired their own version of “Parker Lewis Can’t Lose” NBC would be the equivelent of original era Fox.. the startup network.
Few people in America have ever heard of Survivors – I never had. To be accurate Jericho was the first post apocalyptic serial drama series in America. There was a horrible comedy back in the 1980s called WHOOPS! about people being the last surivors of WW III, but again, most people never heard of it – thankfully so. I recall only bits and pieces of the pilot and it was beyond stinky.
In the end Jericho failed because the 2nd season writers alienated a large percentage of Season 1’s conservative viewers by making turning Kansas into Iraq. There are a few dozen hard core junkies who still think its coming back as a movie after a lame comic book issued in October that supposedly outlines what would have been Season 3.
As for DAY ONE, NBC is probably hoping that by downplaying their expectations after the failure of KINGS and the slow crash and burn of HEROES. In general serial dramas arent doing well unless they are full of sex and bed hopping women and/or doctors. JERICHO originally had only 7 episodes, but after it exceeded expectations, 15 more were ordered. If DAY ONE manages 10 million viewers consistently, it could conceivably get another 13 episodes – with budget/cast cuts. The only advantage DAY ONE has is that its on NBC – which has markedly lower expectations than CBS or ABC – which is why CHUCK is still around.
V? I give that one a 40% chance of seeing another season. Ive seen nothing but the trailer so far. Looks a little to sanitized. The original miniseries were a little cheesy but the characters all felt like real people. If the character in this version are too slick and polished it could become dull very quickly.
None of NBC’s new shows have hit written all over them. I detect fail! And I especially hope that leno bombs. Sorry to be a pessimist, I usually am not.
Jim