Lent Post: Guys, I Think NBC Is Dying

Salvete.

Yes, it is the day before Lent starts, but I might as well get started.

When I watched the Superbowl, I was looking forward to all the new Superbowl commercials. In the most recent Superbowls, good commercials were few and far between, but perhaps this year would be different. While there were several good commercials, I found a surprising number of NBC commercials for NBC shows- on the NBC football channel. I had heard on The Blaze that NBC was running out of profitable enterprises and thus could potentially go out of business, but I didn't realize the gravity of that statement. When I saw the endless ads for The Blacklist, however, I came to grips with reality: NBC is desperate for views. Whether The Blaze made a self-fulfilling prophecy or whether NBC just didn't make as much profit this year, it didn't seem to matter.

Let me explain. If I were a media company (say, PNC, the Plaustrum News Company) in charge of filming the Superbowl, I would have a good chunk of time to use as needed. If my shows were doing successful, I would use the time and sell it to large companies, gain millions of dollars in revenue, and help fund the already-popular shows. Had I used the time to promote the shows to the masses, it would have meant lost opportunity and lost revenue. If my shows were doing poorly, however, and my company was thus going out of business, I would use the Superbowl to promote my own company. I would have to sacrifice an enormous short-term benefit to stay afloat in the long run. Given the context, it seems like NBC is in the latter position.

It could've been an overreaction. An anomaly, albeit the Superbowl, was possible. The SNL forty-year reunion, however, helped to confirm the theory. NBC poured its heart and soul into the anniversary, inviting all the big stars from the show and having a whole hour-long red carpet with about a three-hour-long episode. It... wasn't funny. Sure, the Jeopardy sketch was ok, but the Californians sketch went on for far too long, and shortly after my family and I turned off the television to go to bed and do other things. I think that the anniversary special was part of NBC's last stand; SNL was NBC's flagship program, and even it failed. Why else would NBC celebrate the 40th anniversary as the must-see event rather than save the grandeur for the 50th?

It's tragic to see such a large corporation plead for help, but it could be possible that NBC will take its last breaths in a few years. Or it could get bailed out like all the other corporations this day and age. What a time we live in.