While the cynic in us is actually thankful for NBC/Universal President Jeff Zucker and his entire executive team — whose ability to continually top themselves with bad-idea-after-bad-idea has provided this TV Addict with an endless amount of fodder to fill keep this site chugging along — the TV lover in us can’t help but feel somewhat depressed as we watch first hand the once great National Broadcasting Company implode as it cedes five hours of primetime programming to failed experiment that is THE JAY LENO SHOW and attempt to pass-off a lacklustre fall schedule filled with been-there-done-thats as ‘Must See TV.’ Not to mention, we’re still kind of bitter that some NBC exec who clearly hates both the holidays and America robbed us of what surely would have been another GLEE-ful performance during Thursday’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
While there is no denying that the late night institution is still capable of the occasional glimpses of brilliance, SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE’s continued penchant for wasting an hour and a half of our week has not only left us scratching our head as to how on earth a group of seemingly talented writers and performers can so consistently fail to come up with 10-12 funny sketches per week when THE DAILY SHOW and THE COLBERT REPORT manage to knock it out of the park on a nightly basis. But more interesting still, has us wondering what SNL might be like with someone new at the helm. Judd Apatow and his gang of merry jokesters, just imagine.
As if ceding Saturday night wasn’t enough, this season the networks have all but give up on Fridays as well. Evidently forgetting the days when shows like DALLAS and the X-FILES used to guarantee tens of millions of eyeballs an evening, and the more obvious fact that if this unsettling trend of downsizing the programming week continues, they might soon find them scheduling themselves out of a job.
If the success of THE VAMPIRE DIARIES and the positive buzz surrounding January’s upcoming LIFE UNEXPECTED has proven anything, it’s that audiences will really sink their teeth into shows if they involve more than vapid twenty-somethings hooking up (see the continual disappointing ratings for 40% of the CW’s sked, including 90210, MELROSE PLACE, ONE TREE HILL and GOSSIP GIRL) Maybe now Dawn Ostroff, who thought canning PRIVILEGED for the short-lived THE BEAUTIFUL LIFE: TBL was a good idea might get the message.
Seriously, in what world was that turkey pilot a good idea? 
