TCA: NBC Jokes About Cosby, Says Network’s Comedy Failure No Laughing Matter

NBCAt the NBC Executive Session at the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour, NBC Entertainment Chairman Bob Greenblatt started the morning by addressing the elephant in the room: “We’d like to announce the development of a Bill Cosby comedy and a mini-series about Hillary Clinton.”

But more on that later.

NBC
the cast of Allegiance

Of the network’s new mid-season offerings, Greenblatt says that the network intentionally held back — what are, in his opinion — some of their most exciting shows including the limited-run series The Slap, Odyssey and Allegiance.

Greenblatt also touted a new show, One Big Happy from executive producer Ellen Degeneres in the prime post-The Voice timeslot.

Greenblatt touted the network’s eye towards programming that reflects diversity and the burgeoning and powerful Hispanic market by announcing the development of a 13-episode comedy called Telenovela, which Eva Longoria will produce and star. The single-camera comedy will explore life behind the scenes of a steamy telenovela.

Greenblatt also noted that this summer,  Jennifer Lopez will star in Shades of Blue, a dark, cop drama where Lopez will play a single mother detective, who works undercover for FBI’s corruption task force. It’s a return to Lopez’s Out of Sight roots.

One of the summer’s biggest events at NBC will be the mini-series, Heroes Reborn and Greenblatt announced that Zachary Levi has joined the cast, but won’t mention his role on the hush-hush reboot of the Heroes series.

Another Miniseries that NBC is developing is tentatively titled Freedom Run, and follows three couples as they make their way on the Underground Railroad. The series is based on a book, and musician Stevie Wonder is attached as a producer. Greenblatt also mentioned that the story is also being developed as a Broadway Musical with Wonder slated to create the score. Given the powerful nature of the topic, this mini-series has the potential to attract big-names and bigger budgets. Freedom Run is definitely a series I’m looking forward to.

Greenblatt also announced that the network has closed a deal to develop a series of TV movies with Dolly Parton based on her songs, her stories, and her inspiring life. These movies are meant for a family audience, a market that Greenblatt admits is missing from broadcast TV.

This Summer, NBC will present Aquarius, a 13-episode series starring David Duchovny about a detective in the turbulent late 1960’s who has just come into contact with a young, petty criminal named “Charlie Manson.”

NBC is also in development of Julian Fellowes next show, The Gilded Age a sweeping epic of wealth in New York in 1880s that is hopefully slated for late 2015 or early 2016.

Jennifer Salke President, NBC Entertainment joined Greenblatt on stage for questions from the press.

As previously mentioned by Greenblatt and exemplified by the impressive ratings of The Sound of Music Live! and Peter Pan Live!, there isn’t enough family-oriented programming on network TV says Greenblatt. For NBC’s annual December live musical, he announced that NBC has optioned The Wiz, so depending on casting, we may either ease on down the road this December, or play 76 Trombones in The Music Man as previously planned. Greenblatt said he was pleased with Peter Pan‘s ratings, citing the special’s ratings amongst kids 2-11 were up 76% over last year, despite criticism over airing a 3-hour musical on a school night.

On the comedy front, NBC admits it’s challenged by the comedy brand the network has been trying to build and points to a number of years of failure of shows that they thought was going to do well (A to Z). The failure of NBC’s recent Thursday night comedies was starting to feel like “insanity,” says Salke. “We’re going to try more multi-cams,” adds Greenblatt.

Historically, some of the network’s best series were multi-camera comedies, so NBC is hoping to catch lightning in a bottle again with Undatable and One Big Happy. The network’s comedies have hemorrhaged viewers for the past few years on nights that used to be the network’s strengths/ It is seemingly willing to try anything to regain the show’s dominance.

Back to Bill Cosby. Greenblatt said Bill Cosby projects at NBC are “dead” and admitted that he had heard grumblings of past accusations and settlements against the actor. Greenblatt says that Cosby hasn’t been proven guilty of anything, “But when that many people come out and have similar complaints and it becomes such a tainted situation, there was no way we could move forward.” This of course, drew the ire of the assembled members of the media, because one rape accusation is too many accusations. Greenblatt admits he’s glad to be out from under the Cosby situation, but says in regards to the network’s slowness to respond, “I didn’t think it was a problem until it became critical.”

Katherine Heigl State of AffairsGreenblatt expressed disappointment in State of Affair’s performance as ratings have fallen in the last few weeks. Greenblatt says it’s a “Fine” show yet wonders why viewers haven’t latched on. With the glut of “Great” TV, I doubt that viewers are going to spend their precious TV-watching hours on a series that its own network head describes as “Fine.”

State of Affairs image: Ben Cohen/NBC
Allegiance image: Joe Pugliese/NBC