21 Responses to “NBC smackdown continues, this time courtesy of Rescue Me’s Peter Tolan”

1. sam says:

   August 7, 2009 at 12:08 pm

   OWNED
2. JanieJones says:

   August 7, 2009 at 12:15 pm

   Leave it to Tolan….enough said! I happen to agree to certain point. NBC did not do itself any favors on this press tour with their avoidance and continuing of the branding of the “peacock network.” I call them feathered and tarred at this point.
3. huddy80 says:

   August 7, 2009 at 1:03 pm

   Tolan is a jack-ass. What the hell is someone from cable channel FX doing commenting about broadcast channel NBC? I know FX is owned by Fox, but saying they have surrendered is just plain silly. It’s not like NBC likes being in fourth place, but NBC has had a tarnished reputation since 2004 and have tried for 5 years to get back up into first place. The problem with that is this: People who watched NBC loyally for years due to their terrific programming stopped being faithful to the network when its mainstays Friends, Frasier, Will & Grace went off the air and ER lost viewers when Anthony Edwards left in 2002. So now, people still think NBC is “Nothing But Crap”, but it still offers great programming such as Emmy nominee leader, 30 Rock, The Office, Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU and Heroes. The bigger problem is that producers and writers don’t want to work for NBC because they see it as a fourth-place network. NBC should not be shut out like that, even if they are constantly in last place. On the bright side, it does better than the CW.
4. Robert Seidman says:

   August 7, 2009 at 1:23 pm

   a more detailed accounting.

   http://www.thrfeed.com/2009/08/fx-showrunners-slam-nbc-for-leno-show.html

   Huddy, first, and we said this on our blog months ago, the move to Jay Leno was clearly a “we give up” move. The reason Tolan, Shawn Ryan and others are speaking out so passionately about it is that they feel like by pushing 4 or 5 scripted dramas a week off the schedule, a lot of writers, directors, producers, etc, who otherwise might have found work, won’t.

   I don’t know if I agree with the math since of course Leno is employing some people too, but I do understand why it rankles the creative folks.
5. huddy80 says:

   August 7, 2009 at 1:29 pm

   Thanks Robert for the clarity. I just don’t understand television “politics” as they are. Thanks for the link too, I am glad I have this site and people like you and Bill to make it a lot more clear.
6. Julia says:

   August 7, 2009 at 1:36 pm

   I don’t know if I agree with the math since of course Leno is employing some people too

   But like they said, it’s a numbers game. Leno’s writers’ salaries may be in the top 5% of WGA writers, but the same people are getting paid five nights a week. If there were five different shows, more writers would be able to be employed, even if they wouldn’t be making as much. The way Leno seems to completely discount that argument just because his people are taken care of is extremely conceited.
7. huddy80 says:

   August 7, 2009 at 1:38 pm

   Also, Robert, I actually forgot about Jay Leno this season, lol. But I do agree with the article in it saying NBC is putting “everything” into Jay’s show succeeding. I was reading my tweets on twitter earlier this week and found this comment rather amusing:

   http://tinyurl.com/nwkfqp

   Fourth and fifth paragraph down, really makes me laugh! NBC will claim Leno a hit after one week, I guarantee it, but Angela Bromstad says it will take “more than a week” to determine if the show is a hit. Then she goes on to say, “We have a contingency plan…” Sounds like to me they are maybe expecting the show to fail.
8. anonymous internet coward says:

   August 7, 2009 at 2:35 pm

   A really reliable indicator is, when producers and executives start talking openly about what a mess you’ve made, when they’ve lost all their fear of you, it means your time at the top is drawing short.

   There are any number of powerful people in television who really don’t know what they’re doing. But they have the power to crush anyone who points it out.

   But nobody wants to work at NBC at this point. And nobody has any fear that the powers that be at NBC will turn things around and get back at people like Peter Tolan.

   There are still cowardly outsiders who prefer to hide behind internet aliases. But when a working producer like Peter Tolan will speak so openly, well, it means what it means.
9. Jamie says:

   August 7, 2009 at 4:59 pm

   hmmmm all of these people slamming the network with THE MOST emmy nods…… hmmm I think some people are jealous or something…. idk what the deal is but Rescue Me and everything else on FX completely sucks lmao its actually hillarious. Dude you are a nobody. The only reason Rescue Me has lasted as long as it has is because FX cant develop or get the rights to anything thats of good quality.
10. thedemonhog says:

    August 7, 2009 at 6:46 pm

    It is fun how NBC has gotten to the point where they can be legitimately trashed by a guy who runs a show with three million viewers.
11. greennogo says:

    August 7, 2009 at 6:47 pm

    For WGA types, it’s not about jealousy and the Emmy’s–otherwise they’d be snarking about AMC–it’s about jobs, and only jobs. Sure, the Leno show employs writers and production crew, but the comparison between the number of jobs that creates as opposed to the number of jobs five hours of scripted fare will create–from spec to development to pilot season to series–is alot like comparing the number of people it will take to assemble a skateboard compared with the number of people it would take to assemble a fleet of jumbo jets.
12. Tom says:

    August 8, 2009 at 3:14 am

    If the writers on the shows who got the boot because of Leno had done their jobs better, the ratings for those shows would’nt hve sucked and NBC would not have needed Leno to stop bleeding money.

    The only show who was directly affected by Leno was Medium and its moving to CBS. All the other shows NBC canceled deserved it because of their ratings.
13. Julia says:

    August 8, 2009 at 8:20 am

    Tom, the argument is that there could be five new shows could be in those spots, not that the shows that were going to be canceled lost those spots.
14. chet says:

    August 8, 2009 at 9:27 am

    jamie critcally acclaimed shows and emmys dont matter if your not bringing in the viewers and demos
15. tony b says:

    August 8, 2009 at 12:42 pm

    NBC is just having a hard time right now. many networks have gone through a ratings challenge before. ABC went through the same thing not to long ago. NBC does have some great shows such as america’s got talent which is the number 1 summer program. They just need to fix there yearly programming
16. Mumbo says:

    August 8, 2009 at 2:42 pm

    Well, writers, if you want more jobs, start writing some episodes that people will actually watch.
17. Theoacme says:

    August 8, 2009 at 8:28 pm

    Peter Tolan – I have in hand this press release:

    Burbank, CA (NBCU): NBC Universal has taken FX peon Peter Tolan’s advice beyond what even he or GE CEO and chair Jeffery Immelt could have possibly imagined, and really thrown up a white flag in front of 30 Rock, by firing Jay Leno before his show even began.

    “We have taken this opportunity to improve the quality of our earnings by replacing Mr. Leno with a more reasonable comedy option,” NBC boss Jeffrey Zucker commented from the unemployment building in beautiful downtown Burbank, where hundreds of former NBC employees were being turned down for unemployment by the unemployed state of California unemployment workers who were furloughed last week. “We have hired Theoacme, the noted amateur comedian from tvbythenumbers.com, to perform seven days a week at 10 o’clock, 9 Central.

    “He has agreed to work for an annual salary of $400,000, plus expenses, to include solely carrying out all writing duties.

    “We expect NBC to be the most profitable network in the world, thus helping General Electric make its profit targets.”

    Reaction to the press release was unanimous:

    Bill Gorman – “Huh?”

    Robert Seidman – “Hmmm…”

    Julia – “Surrender? Try sticking an atom bomb in your mouth, Jeffrey – it would taste better…”

    Holly – “They’d be better off with a pet rock in that slot…”

    So – fifteen minutes later…

    Burbank, CA (NBCU): NBC Universal has taken tvbythenumbers.com maven Holly Golightly’s advice beyond what even he or GE CEO and chair Jeffery Immelt could have possibly imagined, and really thrown up a white flag in front of 30 Rock, by firing Theoacme before his show even began.

    “We have taken this opportunity to improve the quality of our earnings by replacing Mr. Theoacme with a more reasonable comedy option,” NBC boss Jeffrey Zucker commented from the unemployment building in beautiful downtown Burbank, where hundreds of former NBC employees were being turned down for unemployment by the unemployed state of California unemployment workers who were furloughed last week. “We have hired a pet rock, named Thirty, the noted gneissite from petrocksaresmarterthantheaveragebear.com, to perform seven days a week at 10 o’clock, 9 Central.

    “He has agreed to work for an annual salary of $0.00, plus zero expenses, to include solely carrying out all writing duties.

    “We expect NBC to be the most profitable network in the world, thus helping General Electric make its profit targets.”
18. Theoacme says:

    August 8, 2009 at 8:30 pm

    Sorry, Holly, about the “he” – what can you expect when Don Ohlmeyer has to type press releases from Immelt?
19. Julia says:

    August 8, 2009 at 8:34 pm

    Hey, at least the weekly average for NBC at 10 pm will still beat CW’s weekly primetime average.
20. Theoacme says:

    August 8, 2009 at 8:39 pm

    Not if the CW replaces its current programming with “TV Test Cards Throughout The World…”

    …I Googled “tv test card” – the first image would not meet Dawn Ostroff’s expectations…but should meet any male human’s expectations quite nicely
21. richard less says:

    August 9, 2009 at 8:35 pm

    Was Ben Silverman the “lame-o in a limo” of this decade?

    I say “yeah.”