NBC executive sessions at the semi-annual TV press tours have been worth watching as showcases of self-flagellation.“I think last year I came out here and admitted right off the top that we’d had a bad fall,” NBC chief Robert Greenblatt says. “I think what I actually said was that we’d had a really shitty fall. Well, I’m not saying that this year.”
In fact, he weighed the network’s rise with another, only slightly less scatological declaration.
Quoting another network head’s admission that “a lot of us in this business just have our heads up our asses,” Greenblatt deferred: “While that may be true of the other places, I can guarantee you we don’t have our heads up our asses.”
Greenblatt warned reporters “I’m going to bore you with some statistics — because I’m not sure when I’m going to have the chance to do this again.”
So he laid it out. Based on a fall season buoyed by “The Voice” and prime time football,
- NBC is up 24 percent in the coveted 18-49 category.
- It’s up 19 percent in total viewers,
- NBC is the only network among the four broadcast nets to be up in viewers
- While CBS still leads the networks in total viewers, NBC is now the clear No. 2, up from “a distant No. 4” a year ago
- NBC has the No. 1 primetime series on broadcast television, “Sunday Night Football” and No. 1 unscripted series in the “The Voice.”
- NBC has the No. 1 new drama on the broadcast networks with “Revolution” and the No. 1 new comedy with “Go On.” It also has the No. 1 series on Friday, “Grimm.”
- Moving “The Voice” to Mondays boosted ratings for that night by 176 percent and boosted Tuesdays 44 percent.
- “The Voice” was the fall’s top reality series, beating “X Factor” by 42 percent.
- NBC was the only network whose median age went down compared to last year — 48.4, down from 49.