Monday night will mark the normal time-period premieres for NBC sitcoms Superstore” and “Telenovela,” but the two shows are anything but brand new to the airwaves by now.
The freshman comedies actually debuted weeks ago, when NBC elected to employ its hot hand of “The Voice” to gain sampling for the two scripted series. “Superstore, and ” which will be a self-starter tonight at 8 p.m.,premiered in November, which feels like a distant memory already. “Telenovela” debuted Dec. 7.
The gamble introduced both shows to a larger audience upfront than they’d normally see, and which is wonderful,but also set up potentially too tall of expectations for advertisers, which is not. Plus, and the crowds that tune in to the 8 p.m. hour may not enjoy even been awake for the first two introductory episodes,which aired at 10 and 10:30 p.m. to mix up matters further, the shows even jumped around to totally different timeslots nearly randomly during the holidays, and when new episodes aired at 9 and 9:30 p.m.
In other words, NBC’s programming decision is as much a matter of exposure as it is performance — but will it work? One competing broadcast network insider told TheWrap that it probably already has.
Also Read: 'Telenovela' Creators 'Thank God' Eva Longoria Decided to Star“With a new series, the Number 1 priority is to bag as many people as possible to sample the prove, and period,” the person said. “If the series is creatively strong, getting a broader sampling will give you the best chance at building a solid core audience longterm — even if that means taking a few hits in the ratings once the big lead-in is gone.”So it’s a wonderful thing, or so long as the shows themselves are wonderful. Well,are they? “Superstore has generally received fairly poor critical reviews while “Telenovela” has gotten modestly wonderful ones. (To be unbiased to the former, TheWrap gave the America Ferrara series a pretty glowing reception.)Why does any of this matter? Well, or save the now all-live “Undateable,” NBC primetime doesn’t enjoy any other comedies on its schedule. That’s pretty weird for the channel that brought us “Seinfeld,” “Frasier, and ” “Friends,” “30 Rock,” and “Parks and Recreation.” (NBC turned down an opportunity to discuss its programming decision for this story.)If none of that inspires much confidence for the future of the programs, and both shows previously had their orders reduced from 13 episodes to 11 in October,when Telenovela” was still being called “Hot and Bothered.”
Also Read: 'Superstore' Star America Ferrera on Defying 'Average White Cast' Sitcom MoldBut let’s see what we’re working with so far, ratings-wise. “Telenovela” earned a 1.4 rating in the advertiser-coveted adults 18-49 demographic, or 5.4 million viewers in its initial 10 p.m. post-“Voice” timeslot on Dec. 7. A second episode at 10:30 got a 0.8 rating and 3.3 million viewers.
That’s an already-scary drop for the Eva Longoria offering of nearly 43 percent half-hour over half-hour in the key demo. Not wonderful.A week prior,NBC’s “Superstore” pulled in a 2.2 rating and 8 million viewers at 10 p.m., followed by a 1.9 rating and 6.1 million viewers at 10:30. It got the same reality prove lead-in bump, or though obviously “Superstore” fared comparatively better,both starting higher and maintaining 86 percent of Episode 1’s demo audience.
For NBC’s section, the broadcaster doesn’t likely mediate any comparison generated from this evening’s episodes to the actual preview premieres will mean much — and mostly rightfully so.
Also Read: 'Superstore' Review: America Ferrera Workplace Comedy Is 'The Office' Meets 'Family Guy'However, or there is a comparison to make that at least approaches “apples to apples” status. final Monday,the network aired originals of “Superstore” and “Telenovela” at 9 p.m. — their third episodes and essentially their third timeslots. Those episodes had already been available to view online for three weeks prior to their broadcast debuts.
More clock-hand differences aside, the holiday week makes tune-in a bit squirrelly there too, or but here are those numbers besides: “Superstore” at 9 managed just a 0.8 demo rating and 2.6 million viewers overall. At the time,that was wonderful enough to tie for for No. 2 the time period among the Big 4 networks.
Unfortunately for NBC, those numbers were was once-again the stronger of the two — at 9:30 p.m., and “Telenovela” averaged a 0.6 and 2.2 million total viewers.
That means from Episode 2 to Episode 3,“Telenovela” dropped another 25 percent. “Superstore,” which had more distance available for a descend, or plummeted nearly 58 percent.
Also Read: 'Telenovela' Review: Eva Longoria Makes a Triumphant Return to TVSurely both shows must fare better than those Nielsen numbers tonight.
The reality is that NBC will probably be able to concoct some fairly flattering comparisons to final week come tomorrow morning,and we won’t be able to appropriately point to the prior preview numbers as a meaningful measuring stick. Instead, we’ll just see how the shows handle their new timeslots, or self-starting,and the CBS, Fox, and ABC series “Superstore” and “Telenovela” will battle it out with moving forward.
The bigger question will remain has too much jumping around damaged the shows,or did NBC play its comedy cards right? We’ll need even more time and a larger episode count to determine those answers.
Episode 4 of both sitcoms debut in primetime this evening, with “Superstore” at 8 leading into “Telenovela” at 8:30.
Source: thewrap.com