Do the Big Television Networks Think We’re Stupid? NBC Shows They Do

After the debacle that was the first Jay Leno Show, I took a night off, preferring instead to watch a movie I had never seen before on This!, the movie network, that, for the Los Angeles market, is part of the CW affiliate, residing at channel 5.2.

I was astounded on Monday night by the pure badness of the opening skit, by some unknown (and much better left that way) bunch of idiots who decided that everything goes better when you sing, including a car wash. The addition of a moronic skit about the supposed gay interludes between Jay and the band leader, Kevin Eubanks, was just more unnecessary wasting of the rest of the hour.

Then we were given a section where Jay decided to play Sally Jesse Raphael, or, for the younger set, Oprah, trying to figure out why Kanye West has no manners and no self-control. It was bad. Very bad. He should avoid this sort of thing like the plague, because his timing sucks. It looked as though we might get some sort of answer for the idiocy committed a day earlier at the awards show, but Leno insisted upon cutting off the flow.

To top it off, we were ‘treated’ to a bombastic mess by three people I don’t associate with music, much less entertainment. The high point of the show then, would be the mediocre opening monologue.

OH, joy!

It appears I was not the only one to watch something else on night 2, after hearing about the appearance of Tom Cruise, someone I like to watch in films, but wish to know nothing about otherwise – not his whacked out lifestyle, his family, or his religion.

From Reuters, the news is that the show lost 7 million viewers from night 1 to night 2.  After that announcement, the article made no bones about the fact that this entire change in the program line-up is a cost-cutting one.

The 10 to 11 PM hour is normally occupied by  5 dramas that have many stars, and also (apparently) expensive writers. Strange, because I could turn out that Law & Order crapola in a short lunch hour – it is so formulaic I’m surprised that comedy shows don’t hit that aspect of it more often.

As I have said before, the programming staff seem to have a bad case of cranial-rectal immersion, because they force great shows like Monk, Burn Notice, and Battlestar Galactica to appear on cable channels, like USA and Sci Fi channel, yet they allowed the aforementioned Law & Order – Up Your Street series, to continue to drain resources and money.

There is simply no excuse for this, and that is certainly why NBC is suffering. Like some sports franchises, NBC is facing a few rebuilding years, and unfortunately for them, this is not an auspicious start.

To my senses, the only thing upcoming that comes anywhere close to being watchable is the show about junior college, featuring Chevy Chase – for which the trailers are so memorable, that right now I can’t remember the show’s name.

So, 30 Rock and the show about junior college, with Chevy Chase, not quite an outstanding lineup for an entire week of programming. No wonder, in one of the two largest viewing areas of this nation, we have infomercials appearing at all sorts of odd times of the day and night.

Truly ridiculous.

Doesn’t anyone care that people like Jon Stewart are waiting for a larger audience? As much as I like Craig at 12:37 on CBS, I think that when the original choice was made, CBS screwed up by not going with D.L. Hughley. He should have gotten the shot there, and why he was not given the 12:37 slot on NBC, instead of Jimmy Fallon, is beyond me too. There are talented people, waiting for the networks to wake up – but then, no one said that television networks were headed by intelligent people. They appear to think we’re stupid, and non-discriminating, but we know, having been shown proof, they are stupid.

Soon, with no changes, when people will be speaking about the big 3 networks, they will be including CBS, ABC, and Fox.

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This is what NBC needs to perk things up! They’d only have to tone it down a little!

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