In Recession, NBC Page Gig Loses Luster

(NEWSER) - As the financial crisis deepens, expect TV to trade upper-crust environs for jokes about crustiness, reports the New York Post. Entertainment execs are pushing the development of blue-collar comedies that allow for a little old-fashioned escapism. "I don't think audiences want to see a show about the fall of Lehman Brothers," says an NBC honcho. More»

Quarter of schedule devoted to comedy

(NEWSER) - NBC is looking to comedy to help it climb the ratings ladder: Nearly 25% of the network's fare next season will consist of sitcoms, up from just 14% last fall. Execs are aiming to recapture the highly-educated young adults that helped propel Seinfeld and Friends, the Los Angeles Times reports. And "audiences have been very receptive to comedy and light fantasy drama the past couple of seasons," says chairman Bob Greenblatt. More»

NBC musical dazzles critics... mostly

(NEWSER) - If you watched the Super Bowl, you just might have heard of Smash, NBC's new drama about the making of a Broadway musical. It premiered last night, and critics are (mostly) giving it a standing ovation:

• The buzz has gotten so intense that the conversation isn't even about whether it'll be good. "Good? Darling, it's great!" gushes Mary McNamara of the LA Times . The creators have "managed to capture the grand and sweeping gesture that is musical theater and inject it with the immediate intimacy of television," an impressive, unprecedented feat.

The Office firm to put 'quabity first' in Staples deal

(NEWSER) - Fans of the Office will soon be able to buy paper made by their favorite company—though instead of purchasing it from Dwight Schrute, they’ll have to get their reams through Staples. The office-supply giant’s Quill.com has reached a licensing deal with NBCUniversal to sell Dunder Mifflin paper, the Wall Street Journal reports. The letterhead must have been approved by Michael Scott: It carries slogans like "Quabity First" and "Get Your Scrant On." More»

Viewership down 9.3% from year before

(NEWSER) - NBC’s long-struggling ratings are only getting worse as the new television season gets under way. Some 3.3 million 18- to 49-year-olds have been tuning in to the network's primetime offerings over the past four weeks, a 9.3% drop from the year before, the Wall Street Journal reports. And if you leave out NFL games, viewership is down 16% from a year earlier, with just 2.2 million viewers. More»