NBC in the dark ... Gee ... No, GE
How’d you dig the turn-out-the-lights segment in NBC’s “Football Night in America” studios? It was lights-out as far as NBC's promo department was concerned.
Co-host Bob Costas seemed to be taking a mighty big leap when he asked, shortly after they hit the switch and the lights went out: “Aren’t there enough dim bulbs on this program already?”
After Costas explained the NBC Universal “campaign” to raise awareness of environment issues, it seemed a little self-serving for him to admit that by just turning off the lights in that studio, General Electric saved enough energy to power a typical American family for a month. So then why even put on a show when some poor family is struggling to pay its monthly electric bill? “We can hopefully raise awareness and start to activate some internal policies that will achieve tangable results,” Costas added, making sense to probably less than a third of the total viewing audience.
ESPN’s Mike Tirico may have gotten the last subtle jab on NBC’s attempt to close the hole in the ozone layer when, with two minutes left in the network’s “Monday Night Football” telecast, he was alerted during an overhead shot of the city of Pittsburgh that the lights at the Pirates’ PNC ballpark were turned on. “Are they playing tonight?” Tony Kornheiser asked? “It’s all lit up.”
Said Tirico: “I guess they didn’t get the ‘green’ memo. I do want to point out I’m going to take tonight’s game notes and will put them in the blue recycling bin. ‘Monday Night’ is also green and recycles.”
At least NBC's "Poker After Dark" series doesn't have to do much with its future lighting scheme.