By Davod Bauder
NEW YORK—NBC is turbo-charging the trend of reviving canceled comedies with its pickup of “Brooklyn Nine-Nine.”
The network quickly swooped in after Fox dumped it last week, adding it to NBC’s midseason schedule. While the fan outcry was heartening, NBC Entertainment Chairman Robert Greenblatt said Sunday that because of business considerations, the pickup already was in the works. The show is made by an NBC Universal-owned studio.
Greenblatt said if he had known earlier in the series’ development that Andy Samberg was going to star in “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” NBC’s studio never would have sold it to Fox in the first place.
“It was a missed opportunity for us from the beginning,” he said. “We jumped on it really quickly, and we’re thrilled to have it.”
He said he believes it’s a better fit for NBC’s brand of comedy than it ever was for Fox.
NBC succeeded this past season with a reboot of “Will & Grace,” while ABC’s revival of “Roseanne” has been an even more spectacular success. That’s left network executives scouring old cast lists for shows that can be brought back.
NBC says it will introduce five new dramas and two new comedies next season. It’s the only one of the four biggest broadcast networks with more viewers than last season, although that would not have been the case without the Winter Olympics and Super Bowl.
Broadcast television’s schedule week is a whirlwind of star-studded presentations and parties for advertisers, who will use what they see to decide where to buy billions of dollars’ worth of commercial time.
It is, however, becoming less significant for consumers. Twenty-five years ago, the decisions announced influenced the evening habits of millions more people.
In those days, 71 percent of televisions in use during prime time were tuned to either ABC, CBS, NBC or Fox, the Nielsen company said. Today, it’s roughly half that. During last season, 40 percent of the TVs were watching those channels, along with other broadcasters like the CW, Univision, and Telemundo, Nielsen said.
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