NBC Universal: March 2010 Archives

All I can say is, BEN SILVERMAN HAS DONE IT AGAIN! 

In only nine months, Mr. Silverman has taken his crazy $100 million dollar dream of Electus.com and turned it into the reality that IS Electus.com.  

The brilliance of the Electus.com homepage (at left) is its minimalism.  What looks to you and me like an "Error" page is actually Ben Silverman's 'crystal ball' gaze at the future of his own company.  It's a stunning stroke from the Master Innovator.

IAC (and Barry Diller) must be proud and ready to show the world as they have made the link to the site live.

Media watchers (or Medea watchers) like me can't wait to see what he comes up with next.  Perhaps Lord Silverman will provide a sliver of wisdom in his upcoming keynote to the MIPTV conference on April 13th.

What a great day that will be in the history of media.

Jill Kennedy - OnMedea

It's the end of an era.  When "Seinfeld" went off the air in 1998 (!!) there was no bigger star in television who wielded more influence than Jerry Seinfeld.  Senior creative executives from every major studio were falling all over themselves to get the next Seinfeld project. 

But... Jerry decided to take his $100 million (give or take a few million) and went off to enjoy his life.  He did the occasional stand-up event at Caesar's Palace; the occasional guest spot on a TV series or talk show to give his friends a spike in their ratings; voiced a cartoon bee, etc.

Up until last week, everyone just assumed that Jerry Seinfeld was still as big as he ever was.

Then something strange happened this week:  Jerry Seinfeld became irrelevant. 

After spending millions of dollars for promotional time during the Vancouver Olympics for Jerry Seinfeld's "The Marriage Ref", NBC was expecting a really big number. 

They even cut the Closing Ceremonies short (to most of the country's shock and anger) just to show the premiere of "The Marriage Ref".  And, to be fair, they got a strong number (though, I suspect, with that lead in, NBC could have put on a rerun of "Silver Spoons" and it also would have gotten a big number). 

With that in mind, last night "The Marriage Ref" settled into its Thursday night 10pm time slot and promptly lost half of its audience.  Don't get me wrong, these aren't terrible numbers like Melrose Place or The Beautiful Life on The CW or Severed Fingers on MBS, but not the numbers you want and expect if you have JERRY SEINFELD as your selling point.  You can get those kinds of numbers with Guy Fieri. 

And if the ratings continue to fall, it's will be increasingly hard for Jerry to recruit big name celebrities to be on the panel (and once you get down to the Phyllis Diller, Jamie Farr level - your show may be in trouble).

There was a time when Jerry Seinfeld could do anything he wanted.  But now, like, say, Lucille Ball in 1986, fewer studios will be returning his calls and signing over a blank check.

But, let me just say this... he absolutely killed on David Letterman the other night.  He's still one of the great stand ups in history and proved that with one of the tightest six minutes you'll ever see.  He's just no longer the most important person in the room. 

That spot is reserved for Ben Silverman.

[JEFF ZUCKER UPDATE:  He still has a job - though no one seems to know why. 

Jill Kennedy - OnMedea

Well, that didn't take long.  There will be lots of "I'm With Coco" and David Letterman supporters that will say "It was expected...", "Everyone was just curious about the switch...", "Jay has all those Olympians on the show..."

Whatever. 

I write this not as a Jay Leno fan (far from it) - but as a practical person who looks at the numbers.  As I said when there was a debate over whether NBC should keep Conan or Jay... of all the late night hosts on all the networks, Jay Leno is simply the one that more people want to watch.  I'm not talking about "quality" or "educated" people here.  I'm talking about more PEOPLE.

In his first night back in the 11:35pm time slot, Jay Leno destroyed the competition. The Tonight Show with Jay Leno got a 5.7/14 share; David Letterman (3.0/8 share); Nightline/Jimmy Kimmell Live (1.8/6 share).  Tonight, Jay has Sarah Palin and Shaun White on the show.  Who do you think will win?

I think Conan may want to avoid the direct competition and forget about Fox.  I'm sure Fox executives are thinking the same thing today.

[Note to Jeff Zucker:  These results are not because of your brilliance, they are in spite of your ignorance.  The Olympics will lose over $200 million for your network and you won't make that up with "The Marriage Ref" or "Parenthood" ratings.  You will be fired.]

Jill Kennedy - OnMedea