NBC, which is having so much trouble coming up with new hit shows, has at least locked in a couple of its old hits shows.
The Peacock has announced that it has extended its current deal with "ER" through the end of the 2003-2004 season. Which seems like a long time (In terms of prime-time, network TV) until you consider that NBC has renewed "Law & Order" for a whopping five more seasons, carrying through the end of the 2004-2005 season.
As with all such deals, there are "outs" that could allow the network to drop a show earlier if the ratings tank. But NBC apparently learned at least a bit of a lesson from its last go-round with "ER." The studio that produces the show, Warner Bros., made noises about taking the huge hit to another network if NBC didn't come up with big bucks when its original five-year contract expired. And NBC did so, paying an unprecedented $13 million per episode for the sixth, seventh and eighth seasons of the show.
One year remained on that contract; it has been extended two seasons at what's reported to be a much lower license fee — perhaps $8-9 million per episode. (The show's ratings have eroded in the past couple of years.)
"To no one's surprise, everyone at NBC is thrilled at the prospect of having 'ER' locked in to remain on our schedule well into this decade," NBC Entertainment president Garth Ancier said in a statement. "What's more, our viewers can also rest assured that television's favorite doctors of all time will be making house calls at NBC for at least the next four years."
(Of course, that begs the question of which actors will remain through the end of the deal. Upcoming contract negotiations ought to be interesting.)
Actors shouldn't be a problem on "Law & Order," which has thrived despite numerous cast changes in its 10-year run. The show is an anomaly TV in history — only a handful have lasted 10 seasons and almost all of them were on the downhill slide in terms of popularity, but "Law & Order's" ratings are better than ever.
And the show's style — concentrating on the stories instead of the characters' personal lives, as well as ripping story ideas from the headlines and adapting them — serves it well in terms of keeping the franchise going.
Still, 15 years is a long, long time for a show to air in prime-time. Excepting newsmagazines, only — the various incarnations of "Wonderful World of Disney" (34 seasons); "Monday Night Football" (30); "Ed Sullivan" (24); "Gunsmoke" and "Red Skelton" (20); "Monday Night Baseball" (18); "Lassie" and "Lawrence Welk" (17); and the various incarnations of "Kraft Television Theater" (16). Fifteen seasons would put "Law & Order" in a tie with "I've Got a Secret," "Jack Benny," "Jackie Gleason" and "Perry Como."
A SLIGHT DELAY? NBC, facing the ire of many of its affiliates over a plan to rebroadcast the "NBC Nightly News" on PAX-TV stations, has backed off the plan — at least for the time being.
NBC, which owns 32 percent of PAX, is delaying the plan to give the network and its affiliates a chance to work out joint sales agreements between the local NBC stations and the local PAX stations — essentially allowing the local NBC affiliates to share advertising revenue from the "Nightly News" rebroadcasts on PAX.
In turn, the affiliates aren't going to sue NBC. At least not yet.