TV News: NBC expected to make more early moves as countdown to upfront week begins
Read MoreQuick, read every television programming story written in the last week. Actually, now that you're done, it's the week after and you're really behind. Or, as an alternative, just start coming here on Fridays. I'm Sam Thielman, Adweek 's cable reporter, and every column after this one will pop up at the end of the week with a breakdown of what's happening in development, series orders, renewals, and cancelations. Occasionally casting, too. We're calling it The Slate - it's not meant to be exhaustive, but it is meant to be interesting and occasionally funny and hopefully predictive of what will be worth checking out in the next few months and years. I'll provide a little color rather than just rehashing press releases, and I'll also salt these items with as much related news and gossip as I can dig up, so hopefully you'll see some things you didn't know even if you already knew that, say, Game of Thrones was getting renewed, and you'll be able to check me out every Friday and feel like you're caught up on the week's programming news.
Read MoreAlec Baldwin said he’s game to sign on for an eighth season of NBC’s self-referential comedy 30 Rock , but he fears the network will cancel the show after the 2012-13 campaign. Speaking at a National Press Club luncheon in Washington, Baldwin said that he and his 30 Rock co-stars are willing to extend their contracts for yet another season, but are unlikely to be given the opportunity. “We all signed for six years, and I did sign a contract extension for a seventh season,” Baldwin said. “I would’ve done it next year and the year after that, but the truth of the matter is that NBC is in its predicament.…They’re in this tough place, and we’d like to see them to get out of it. But unfortunately to do so they’re probably going to have to cancel most of the shows they have on their air now.” While NBC has not officially renewed 30 Rock for next fall, as an integral part of the network’s Thursday comedy lineup the series is a shoe-in for at least one more go-around. Beloved by people within the TV industry, the show remains a niche enchantment. Season to date, 30 Rock is averaging 3.6 million viewers and a 1.5 in the adults 18-to-49 demo, finishing fourth in its Thursday 8:30 p.m. time slot behind Fox’s American Idol , CBS’ Rules of Engagement and ABC’s flailing D.C. drama Missing . That said, 30 Rock does get a boost from the DVR. Per Nielsen live-plus-seven-day ratings data, time-shifting improves 30 Rock ’s 18-to-49 deliveries by some 40 percent (2.1). Baldwin regularly makes noise about leaving 30 Rock , which bowed on NBC in October 2006. Early in the series’ fourth season, he said he would quit acting altogether when his contract expired in 2012. He admitted he grew “really sick” of the show during its fifth season (2010-11). “For all of us who did the show, we all had the feeling that we were on to something in season one, and seasons two, three and four were great,” Baldwin said. “Season five really didn’t feel great; everybody felt pretty crappy after season five, like we ran out of gas.
Read MoreYes, you will be able to see men’s doubles table tennis live this summer on nbcolympics.com, right after you finish watching those premiere swimming and track & field events. Speaking to the New York Times Tuesday, Rick Cordella, VP and GM of NBC Sports Digital Media, revealed that his company will for the first time stream live each and every event during the London Olympic Games in July and August. This is a ramp-up in commitment from the conglomerate’s strategy for 2008′s Beijing Olympics, during which NBCUniversal streamed 25 sports live but held back popular events like swimming, track & field and diving that
Read MoreFirst, it looked like a goner. And then, it was a safe bet for renewal. And now, fans of NBC's
Read MoreFirst, it looked like a goner. And then, it was a safe bet for renewal. And now, fans of NBC's
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