The Perils of Messing with Viewing Habits
The ongoing fiasco unfolding over at NBC over their late night schedule contains a lesson for all broadcasters, “mess with the inertia of viewing habits at [your] extreme peril,” as David Carr writes in a New York Times piece today. He added, “not since New Coke has a storied brand been so thoroughly maimed.”
Looking at the mess NBC has managed to make of it’s schedule I can’t help but think of the fury the CBC provoked when it made changes to the news format, particularly at The National, not to mention a similar reaction to the changes to Radio 2 a few years ago.
It’s fair to say that the reaction to changes at The National, particularly as seen from inside the corporation, surprised a lot of people. Similarly the ongoing resentment over the changes at Radio 2, which are just as vociferous three years later, always surprise me.
And I’m sure the executives over at NBC are now surprised by the scale of the reaction to their switcheroo, which now includes multiple campaigns to save the Conan O’Brien show, having their email addresses posted online, and likely many other things I don’t know about.
As I write this, the debacle accounts for fully half of the trending topics on Twitter, which is five times more than the earthquake in Haiti today.
It makes me wonder why making changes to a broadcast schedule evokes such an overwhelming reaction. I don’t mean to dismiss it, I simply think it’s puzzling, I don’t get it. It seems so disporportionate to what’s happened.
Maybe you have an explanation? Maybe there’s some psychology to this, or the fact that TV is one of the few truly universal mediums, it still touches millions of people at the same time. Maybe it’s because you get a sense of personal investment in a show when you watch or listen to it at home. I don’t know. Maybe you have an explanation, because I don’t. All I know is that you mess with viewing habits at your extreme peril.
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Unlike “New Coke”, which is sugar water + ad campaign, the NBC fiasco involve people’s reputations and careers. I think, sadly, Leno’s reputation is now damaged. His show at the old time slot was cool with good ratings, then he had awful ratings at 10pm and became “uncool”. And I doubt viewers can easily forget how uncool he became at 10pm (catering to the 10pm audiences).
If I were a betting man, I will be betting my dollar on Leno not able to regain his former audience ratings whatever time slot he is placed. And the rotten situation O’Brien has to deal with now is very painful and likely irreversible until it is too late to do anything. This train wrecks are awful to watch but contains many “teachable moments” at the same time for people who care to think deeper.
You probably don’t know, The Jay Leno show at 10pm is quite different from his old 11:35 show. So it is not just a time change. I can’t say for others, the 10pm show is more “dumbed down” and more lame. So it is the content he was forced to put up at 10pm to fit the 10pm demographics.
Re: CBC The National
How come I am NOT surprise at CBC senior execs and Peter M.’s surprises? The execs and Peter’s total disregard of viewers’ feelings and concerns and the “we don’t give a shit” mentality are the things that antagonize us the viewers.
P.S. On a personal note. I am happy to say I am well on my path to recovery from my addiction to CBC The National.
For the last few weeks, I have been able to schedule time in the middle of The National broadcast to watch other shows and videos on the internet. There are, NOT surprisingly, many good things to watch out there.
I still watch the first few minutes of The National so I know what CBC is putting as headlines (to balance any CTV bias). If there are important or interesting news I want to know more, I will watch a few more minutes of The National. If not, I will just wait to watch the full half hour CTV News with Lloyd Robertson.
Having been addicted to The National for so many years, I am glad to say it isn’t that hard to kick the habit.
[...] Leno may follow O’Brien and leave NBC). But after commenting on insideCBC’s “The Perils of Messing with Viewing Habits“, I might as well use my comments there as a [...]