NBC announced that they are taking what was going to be a new sci-fi series and cut it back into a mini-series.

Chomp! Chomp!

In a move to save bucks and test the sci-fi waters on a more frugal budget, NBC will be airing Day One as a 4-hour miniseries instead of the planned 13 episode series they originally pitched back in May 2009.

The show will be airing after the Winter Olympics is done and if the show gets a positive response from the sci-fi handicapped Nielsen families, it will be a go.

I say “sci-fi handicapped” because this random collection of Nielsen viewers that seems to get picked to gauge our television programming rarely embrace sci-fi for what it is.  Even if the show is good, I’m betting the $$ in my right pocket it will flounder into Walmart DVD sales sometime soon.

But the NBC spin-doctors were saying that they are making it a miniseries because in their mind, the show was more of an event than a series.  (*** crickets ***)

If you don’t remember, we reported on NBC’s Day One back in May.  NBC released a press release, that if you dwell on, will sound familiar:

In the aftermath of a global event that devastates the world’s infrastructures, a small band of survivors strives to rebuild society and unravel the mysteries of why the event took place and what the future has in store. Told from the point of view of an eclectic group of neighbors in a Van Nuys, California apartment building, this journey of survival will show us that hope is found in the smallest of victories and heroes are born every day.

I’m just saying it sounds familiar, and of course, I thought it might have a chance, considering the creative forces behind the show:

Executive producer and writer: Jesse Alexander (Heroes, Lost, Alias)
Director:  Alex Graves (Fringe, Journeyman).

So right now, Day One has been reduced to a miniseries and hopefully it doesn’t get reduced to much more.  Of course, it’s hard to get upset about this.  I’ve seen almost zero advertising or campaigning for the show.

Source:  Variety

• NBC Announces New Shows, Including “Day One”
• Television: The High Cost Of Doing Business
• Weekly TV Wrap Up – March 5th, 2009
• ‘TMNT’ Bought by Nickelodeon, New Movie & TV Show Coming
• Heroes Premiere Discussion: What Did You Think?
• TV Ratings: ‘V’ Down 27% In Second Week

In this article, I’m chatting a bit about advertisers cutting costs and how this might be relating to shows like Heroes and Day One.  That, and I’ve got an off-subject bonus paragraph that just might make your jaw drop!

Advertiser Revenue Down

This year, my sympathies go out to the networks struggling to survive in this economy.  The economy has caused purse strings to be tightened and advertisers to be more frugal.

The reason networks have fewer dollars to spend is because ad revenue for the upcoming season of television has declined by 22% from the year before.

If I lost 22% of my income, I’d be pretty distressed, but what a 22% decline means here is that the networks only brought in a mere $7.2 billion (that’s with a “B”) in primetime ad sales.

My heart really pours forth.

Network, Primetime Ad value Sold:

• ABC – $1.9 billion
• CBS – $1.9 billion
• Fox – $1.6 billion
• NBC – $1.5 billion
• CW – $300 million

It would appear to cost a lot for networks to actually air the shows we enjoy watching, and though in the past I’ve written about the curse of extra loud TV ads and we’ve all touched on ways to get around them, the bottom line is that it’s the advertising dollar that make our favorite shows possible.

So, despite my ragging on ads most of the time, supporting sponsors is a good way to help your shows stick around.

.

Network Shows Hurt By Reduced Ad Sales?

For instance, the new show that NBC has yet to air, Day One, looks like it’s going to be a single season effort.  In a statement that confuses me, NBC said that it was a big event for them, but because serialized shows are tougher to sustain, that they weren’t necessarily looking for it to return for a 2nd season.  Huh?

Why start a show if you’re not planning to support it?

Day One will be directed by Alex Graves (Fringe, Journeyman) and stars Julie Gonzalo, Derek Mio, Addison Timlin, Adam Campbell, Catherine Dent, David Lyons and Carly Pope.

Details about the show have been kept under wraps until recently and now I know why – because it sounds awfully familiar.

NBC President of Prime Time Entertainment Angela Bromstad let it out that it’s about aliens and an alien invasion.  So it’s just not about a disaster, but a disaster related to aliens. Wow, hop on the alien invasion bandwagon people!

Day One is expected to debut in March.

.

Is Ad Revenue Also Hurting Heroes?

Ad spending plus ratings may be contributing to the budget cut that Heroes is seeing for their upcoming season.

The budget, per episode, for Heroes is being reduced by $300k.  Ouch!  (Is that the excess money burning in the picture?)

.

Off Subject Eye-Opener!

Every now and then, I find something I just have to share with you, our Screen Rant readers, because I think you’d find it interesting.  So since I’m talking money, this article I came across just dazzled my senses and sounds like it would fit right in.

When you think hot dog cart in New York City, have you ever pondered how much it costs to operate in certain locations?

Nah, Me neither.

But I read that the hot dog vendor in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York got booted from his spot because he was overdue on his monthly rent for the spot.

The rent for that street space comes to $53,558 MONTHLY!  And here I thought hot dog carts were just a fun little business fling!

Sources:  Media Week, Airlock Alpha, NY Daily News, Sci-Fi Wire

• Might Fox Actually Renew Dollhouse? [Updated]
• Heroes Lite: Less Viewers Means Fewer Episodes
• Advertisers Have TV Networks By The…
• ‘Heroes’ Renewed For Season 4 – Do You Care?
• NBC Cuts ‘Day One’ Short
• NBC Announces New Shows, Including “Day One”

On Monday, May 5th 2009, The Jay Leno network NBC announced a slate of new shows at their In-Fronts for the 2009 / 2010 television season.  No the above screen shot is not from their in-fronts.  It’s a behind the scenes shot from NBC’s new show, Day One.

Keeping in mind that we here at Screen Rant are all about action / adventure and sci-fi / fantasy (with a dribble of comedy). I’ve left out some details on the new NBC comedy shows but only because we do like our action-adventure shows.  Rather than babble about what I am going to say, I might as well get right to it:

DAY ONE

Day One is a new futuristic drama that will premiere out of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games and the premise sounds awful familiar.

In the aftermath of a global event that devastates the world’s infrastructures, a small band of survivors strives to rebuild society and unravel the mysteries of why the event took place and what the future has in store. Told from the point of view of an eclectic group of neighbors in a Van Nuys, California apartment building, this journey of survival will show us that hope is found in the smallest of victories and heroes are born every day. (Hey! I grew up in Van Nuys.)

Is it me, or does this show sound a lot like Jericho? Instead of a town, it’s an apartment building. I want to say this is a lame attempt at replaying Jericho, but maybe it can work. Why? Because I see a glimmer of hope from the collected creative team.  I can only hope they won’t blatantly rip off the premise of our beloved canceled show.

It’s Executive produced and written by Jesse Alexander (Heroes, Lost, Alias) and directed by Alex Graves (Fringe, Journeyman).

It will star Adam Campbell (Date Movie), Catherine Dent (The Shield), Julie Gonzalo (Eli Stone), David Lyons (ER), Derek Mio (Greek), Carly Pope (24), Thekla Reuten (Sleeper Cell) and Addison Timlin (Cashmere Mafia).

Back in January, our own Kofi Outlaw reported that NBC ordered Day One and he predicted that we could have the same flash-forward and flash-back story structure like Lost and with Jesse Alexander involved, we’ll be getting mystery upon mystery upon cliffhanger upon cliffhanger mystery.

I hope if they do pull that off it is more creative than what we’ve already seen from their other venues. Otherwise, it will just slide into a Lost-Jericho (Losticho?) slot with spies. Me, I say bring it and we’ll see what comes of it.

TRAUMA

As NBC looks to hang on to their medical success from ER, Trauma is ER on wheels. They say that Trauma is an intense look at one of the most dangerous medical professions in the world: the first responder paramedic. Trauma stars Derek Luke, Cliff Curtis, Anastasia Griffith, Aimee Garcia, Kevin Rankin and Jamey Sheridan. It will be executive produced by Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights)

MERCY

Mercy is yet another medical drama that comes from a different perspective – that of the nurses. Mercy will star Taylor Schilling, Jamie Lee Kirchner and Michelle Trachtenberg as our nurses.

It’s going to be put together by writer/executive producers Liz Heldens (Friday Night Lights) and Gretchen Berg & Aaron Harberts (Pushing Daisies). The executive producers are Gail Berman and Lloyd Braun and directed by Emmy Award winner Adam Bernstein (30 Rock, Rescue Me).

PARENTHOOD

From executive producers Ron Howard and Brian Grazer and writer/executive producer Jason Katims (Friday Night Lights) Parenthood depicts the imperfect Braverman family. The Braverman’s are four grown siblings sharing the ups and downs of being parents (hence the show name, I guess). The cast includes Peter Krause, Maura Tierney, Craig T. Nelson, Dax Shepard, Bonnie Bedelia, Monica Potter, Erika Christensen and Sarah Ramos.

Aside from the above new dramas, shows they announced that are returning are:

• Heroes
• Southland
• Parks and Recreation
• Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday (6 epi’s.)
• The Office
• 30 Rock
• The Biggest Loser
• The Celebrity Apprentice
• Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
• Friday Night Lights

A few “alternative” series they announced are:

• The Marriage Ref
• Who Do You Think You Are
• Breakthrough With Tony Robbins

Whatever do they mean by alternative?  Is that their new coined term for reality TV and they’re trying to trick us?

Jerry Seinfeld exec produces The Marriage Ref.  Seinfeld himself says it’s not therapy, it’s a comedy show based on real break ups.  I don’t see how this will work, but just from the humor possibility alone, I might check it out.  How many divorcees are going to watch, and root for their own side of the timeless gender war?

I’ll also give the Breakthrough With Tony Robbins thing a try because I have a lot of respect for what he’s done for himself and others… but they better not test my patience.  Robbins has some great messages to deliver about various aspects on the perceptions of life.  If I see some network dribble creeping into the presentation, I’m out of there.

In Case You Didn’t Notice

The one thing I find interesting is the announcement of the return of Law & Order: SVU.  That’s because the stars of the show Mariska Hargitay and Chris Meloni are still in contract negotiations and despite the economy and being lucky they have jobs, they think they have NBC over a barrel of sorts and are asking for more in their new contracts.  They want more than the $350k per episode and are asking for back-end profits.  So right now, they can buy a house in some places with every episode they film…  and they want more.

NBC said the show is going to go on, with or without them, pending contract negotiations.

Whether it’s related or not, NBC does have to make 5 hours of prime time room for the Jay Leno Show… that means someone is losing their time somewhere.

Did you notice that Chuck is missing from the lineup?  No decision has been made yet on whether Chuck is coming back or not.  The initial plan was to announce Chuck’s status yesterday (May 4th) but they’re now waiting an extra week or two.  Testing the advertiser waters is my guess.  Well, at least it’s not bad news yet.

Check out the massive savechuck Twitter campaign.  I don’t think they’re in the same limbo as Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, but they do share the same gray zone for the moment as both shows have some serious save-the-show campaigns going on.

Source:  NBC, Image Source: Sci Fi Scoop

• NBC 2009 Fall Premiere Dates Announced
• Fall 2009 TV: Premiering Tonight – Sept. 28
• NBC Announces 2009 TV Schedule
• NBC Orders More ‘Chuck’ and Cancels ‘Trauma’
• NBC Cuts ‘Day One’ Short
• TV Renewal And Cancellation Notes To Date

Jesse Alexander, writer-producer of such hit shows as Lost and Heroes, has sold a new show to NBC: the post-apocalyptic sci-fi drama, Day One.

How ironic is that: NBC boots Alexander off of Heroes not some three odd months ago, and here they are now shelling out for his newest creation. Hollywood… truly the land of “it’s just business, not personal.”

Day One will be about a small band of survivors of a global catastrophe, trying to salvage what’s left of society, while uncovering the mystery of why and how the catastrophe occurred, and what future lies ahead for mankind. The project is being produced by Universal Media Studios.

I predict here and now that we can expect Day One to have the same flash-forward and flash-back story structure that we’re currently getting from Lost (not that I’m complaining). And since this is Jesse Alexander we’re talking about, you already know that Day One is going to be throwing mystery upon mystery upon cliffhanger upon cliffhanger mystery at you. Let’s just hope they’re the sort of on-the-brink-of-annoying mystery cliffhangers you get from Lost, and not the so-absurd-they’re-agonizing mystery cliffhangers Heroes has been dumping on us lately.

Guess we’ll know more when the pilot gets underway, but for now, it sounds like a pretty cool concept. What do you think: does Day One sound like it could be a the next Lost?

Source: The Hollywood Reporter via Ain’t It Cool News

• NBC Announces New Shows, Including “Day One”
• NBC Cuts ‘Day One’ Short
• Television: The High Cost Of Doing Business
• Aquaman & The Flash Movies Moving (Sort of) Forward
• Update: The Flash Speeding Forward As Planned
• SDCC ‘09: Preview Screening of ABC’s ‘Flash Forward’