David Kronke was appointed Mayor of Television after a bloodless coup in 2000. Since then, he has improved infrastructure, championed greater educational opportunities and fought for reforms that have utterly erased corruption and incompetence from the television industry. Since Mr. Kronke has ascended to power, Television is a far better place. "Lights" out: NBC's dim bulbs
Another season, another campaign to save a beloved if abysmally rated show: People are sending light bulbs to NBC in an effort to revive the comatose “Friday Night Lights.”
Wouldn’t get my hopes up, though: Radar chatted up NBC’s Ben Silverman and he wasn’t exactly bullish on the show, preferring to talk up “30 Rock” instead. Of “FNL,” he said, “I love it. You love it. Unfortunately, no one watches it. That's the thing with shows. People have to watch them. We're NBC, we have a reputation to uphold.”
Don’t know what kind of reputation the network behind “My Dad is Less Embarrassing Than Your Dad” or whatever it's called has to uphold, and “30 Rock’s” ratings aren’t much better than “FNL’s.” But also: CBS may be regretting that decision to bring back “Jericho” after receiving that avalanche of peanuts last spring, as the show returned last week to some pretty underwhelming numbers. That’s the thing about these save-our-favorite-show campaigns: The people who participate may be awfully passionate, but they don’t represent a large enough group to bring the shows in question decent ratings. “Jericho’s” fate may dampen networks’ enthusiasm for sating hardcore fans.
But, given the financial straits and belt-tightening afflicting NBC, I’m sure they appreciate all those light bulbs pouring in: Saves them some money on the bottom line. Maybe they should threaten to cancel other shows in hopes of inspiring similar campaigns: Just think of all the electronics equipment they’d get from “Chuck” fans, or paper supplies they’d get from “Office” die-hards.
And kudos to the folks at New York Magazine who’ve transformed the save-our-show routine into performance art with a campaign to resurrect, yes, “Cavemen.”
If you can campaign in favor of your favorite shows, though, why not bug the networks to cancel their worst programs?
Inundate VH1 with wind-up alarm clocks to convince them to end the atrocity that is “Flavor of Love!” Fire off a barrage of bellman’s uniforms to persuade CBS to cancel “Welcome to the Captain!” Send The CW crusty thongs to get them to axe “Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious!” C’mon, people it’s time to be pro-active!