They're giving Trump 2 hours. They're giving Leno 10 p.m. They laid off 500 people, including half of CNBC, last week. And now, in its latest money-saving move, NBC is merging two TV divisions responsible for programming in a bid to be more "streamlined." Here's what co-chairman and desperate-honcho-trying-to-save-his-own-ass Marc Graboff had to say about the merger:
The move we are making today is in response to not only the current financial environment, but to the inherent structural changes that are going on in the television industry.
For context, the inherent structural changes currently going on at NBC are roughly similar to the inherent structural changes that occur to a building when a wrecking ball hits it. The Peacock is #4 of the four networks, and their ratings have dropped 14% this year. So now they're trying "to eliminate redundancies as far as possible." Good. Let's start by making sure there's only one Peter Petrelli or Hiro Nakamura at a time. Oh, sorry, that's just what happens with time travel? Cool. Can we go back to 1985, when people watched NBC?
How about this: someone explain to us why Ben Silverman and Jeff Zucker are continuing their endless fall upward when their legacies will include such ringing successes as Coupling, Knight Rider, surrendering great swathes of the schedule to Donald Trump and Jay Leno, and losing Katie Couric.