For a television series, it is the most prestigious time slot of the entire year. To be given the after Super Bowl time slot is the figurative equivalent of your network giving you the ball. The only problem is … now you have to run with it. Since 1983, it is tradition for the home network to air new episodes following the biggest game of the year. Since the Super Bowl is usually the highest rated program of the year, the networks like to capitalize on the influx of new viewers, and hope at least half of the 97 million people who watch will keep their television on the same channel.
With the pressure on and America watching, some shows falter under the bright lights. As The Office continues to build on its’ water cooler status, the crew at Dunder Mufflin should take a lesson from their predecessors and take a few things into account.
The most important thing to remember is that this is the night to get the attention of new viewers. Bigger is better. Remember when Meredith had to hold a bomb lodged inside the chest cavity of a patient on Grey’s Anatomy. Remember when Rachel and Monica fought over Jean Claude Van Damme on Friends? Or when Sydney finally took down SD6 on Alias. Those pivotal moments all took place after the Super Bowl. Even if you never saw the shows before, casual viewers could appreciate the epsidoes.
Another trick of the trade is to not get too complex. Most Americans are ready to relax after the excitement. House, which is a very complex show in practice, “dumbed down” it’s content for last year’s post Super Bowl episode. On the other hand, The Practice didn’t change a lick of their story content when they had a go at it, and discovered something a two year old could have told you: Nobody wants to watch an agenda driven lawyer fight for his client’s life after a the biggest sports night of the year.
The third most important trick of the trade is to remember that if you are premiering an episode, make sure it is good. In the early years, it was customary to air the first episode of a series, in the hopes of building a core audience. The best examples of this is The A-Team and The Wonder Years. I imagine The Wonder Years would have found an audience anyway, but The A Team truly benefited by capitalizing on the gridiron testosterone boiling in the 18 to 40 year old males who just spent four quarters stuffing themselves with potato chips and high fiving each other. This method wasn’t always successful, and the debuts of four duds in a row show that the success of the show is not only determined on time slot, but the quality. I don’t think MacGruder and Loud would have been a hit series even if ABC took copies of episodes door to door to every house in America. Later CBS took a different route by airing non-scripted entertainment. First with the 1993 interview on 60 Minutes of Bill and Hillary Clinton, then with the premieres of Survivor:Australia in 2001 (the highest rated installment of the series ever) and Survivor: All Stars in 2004.
So with the groundbreaking episode just around the corner, NBC is already promising Jack Black and Jessica Alba will make a trip to Scranton. With so many open storylines and fully developed characters, blowing this golden opportunity does not seem likely. Along with The Office, Bruce Springsteen will perform at the half time show, Jennifer Hudson will sing the National Anthem and the commercials are guaranteed to be funnier than ever. And oh yeah, the think there’s a football game scheduled somewhere in the middle too.
With the pressure on and America watching, some shows falter under the bright lights. As The Office continues to build on its’ water cooler status, the crew at Dunder Mufflin should take a lesson from their predecessors and take a few things into account.
The most important thing to remember is that this is the night to get the attention of new viewers. Bigger is better. Remember when Meredith had to hold a bomb lodged inside the chest cavity of a patient on Grey’s Anatomy. Remember when Rachel and Monica fought over Jean Claude Van Damme on Friends? Or when Sydney finally took down SD6 on Alias. Those pivotal moments all took place after the Super Bowl. Even if you never saw the shows before, casual viewers could appreciate the epsidoes.
Another trick of the trade is to not get too complex. Most Americans are ready to relax after the excitement. House, which is a very complex show in practice, “dumbed down” it’s content for last year’s post Super Bowl episode. On the other hand, The Practice didn’t change a lick of their story content when they had a go at it, and discovered something a two year old could have told you: Nobody wants to watch an agenda driven lawyer fight for his client’s life after a the biggest sports night of the year.
The third most important trick of the trade is to remember that if you are premiering an episode, make sure it is good. In the early years, it was customary to air the first episode of a series, in the hopes of building a core audience. The best examples of this is The A-Team and The Wonder Years. I imagine The Wonder Years would have found an audience anyway, but The A Team truly benefited by capitalizing on the gridiron testosterone boiling in the 18 to 40 year old males who just spent four quarters stuffing themselves with potato chips and high fiving each other. This method wasn’t always successful, and the debuts of four duds in a row show that the success of the show is not only determined on time slot, but the quality. I don’t think MacGruder and Loud would have been a hit series even if ABC took copies of episodes door to door to every house in America. Later CBS took a different route by airing non-scripted entertainment. First with the 1993 interview on 60 Minutes of Bill and Hillary Clinton, then with the premieres of Survivor:Australia in 2001 (the highest rated installment of the series ever) and Survivor: All Stars in 2004.
So with the groundbreaking episode just around the corner, NBC is already promising Jack Black and Jessica Alba will make a trip to Scranton. With so many open storylines and fully developed characters, blowing this golden opportunity does not seem likely. Along with The Office, Bruce Springsteen will perform at the half time show, Jennifer Hudson will sing the National Anthem and the commercials are guaranteed to be funnier than ever. And oh yeah, the think there’s a football game scheduled somewhere in the middle too.
