Maybe NBC secretly hates writers.
October 9th, 2009 by screenwriterguy
Ignore the fact that Jay Leno is terribly unfunny, pandering to the lowest common denominator, mocking the less intelligent, going unendingly for the Viagra punchline. Maybe that’s some people’s taste.
Giving the guy 5 nights of PRIME TIME a week? That was perhaps shrewd. Times are tough. Jay Leno costs about half for a week what a good show would cost for a night. Maybe it’s a matter of standing out from the crowd, in a time slot dominated by procedural law, medicine, and crime. And the minor hit the network will take for looking like they care more about the bottom line than about creating world class entertainment is probably survivable.
But to cancel John Wells-run Southland? Despite it’s reasonable critical success? Before it even got a chance to begin a new season? Boooo.
As I writer, I’m not missing the double insult here. First, scrap five weekly hours of scripted entertainment, meaning that many fewer jobs for us. And then go cut a decent show from the new Writers’ Guild president, even though Mercy and Trauma are doing worse with critics, and struggling with ratings. NBC is lucky they have 30 Rock and The Office, or I might my tuner might never land at their frequency.
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