The new NBC game show makes “Deal or No Deal” seem like a taxing challenge.
The puzzler here is the extreme success, ratings-wise, of this mediocre trivia contest hosted to little comic effect by Bob Saget. At a time when literate shows are forging a new “golden age” in television, a heavily promoted, old-style trivia game is the hit of the week. Chalk it up to the $1 million prize money.
“1 vs. 100,” from Endemol, the Dutch “reality” TV factory that gave us such classy filler as “Big Brother” and “Fear Factor,” was the No.1 show of the night for its premiere and NBC’s highest-performing Friday hour in years. The second hour is at 7 tonight on KUSA-Channel 9.
Once again, we can’t complain that the networks aren’t respecting the intelligence of their audience. The ratings prove that we get what we deserve, as the suits like to say.
According to Mediaweek.com, the “stellar sampling” for its new game show gave NBC a winning Friday, with a first- place finish in total viewers and in the demographic slice that matters to advertisers.
“1 vs. 100” debuted with 12.56 million viewers, building on the hot lead-in of “Deal or No Deal” by 1.16 million viewers.
The game is less offensive than the bug-eating reality contest, but that’s not saying much.
Here’s where it hurts: The high-quality drama “Friday Night Lights” is struggling to attract enough viewers to stay on the air, while a trivia show is drawing record audiences.
On the plus side, the proliferation of smart fare on the tube has never been greater. And it’s increasingly available well beyond the tube. The networks are getting into online streaming in a big way.
Last week I missed part of “Lost” for the first time (long story, involving a change in DVRs), so I watched the episode on computer the next day, free in exchange for sitting through a couple of 30-second commercials. Not bad, and even cheaper than the $1.99 iPod fee.
Advertisers are experimenting with Web spots, although the 30-second TV commercial remains the biggest source of revenue for the industry.
Internet ads offer advertisers lower-cost spots that are harder to ignore (you can’t fast-forward through the ads on abc .com, you just sit there watching a Toyota pitch as a timer counts down the seconds). More advertisers are starting to ask whether conventional TV is worth the price when so many of us zip past the spots.
My streaming of “Lost” was just one of 2.5 million requests abc.com got for shows in the past two weeks. Other ABC shows available for streaming after their TV broadcasts are “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Six Degrees” and “The Nine.” I can’t help wondering how many other office workers are sneaking screenings on their desktops? (At least they pay me to waste my time on company time.)
Or maybe you watch via cellphone. Advertising Age reported this week that Anne Sweeney, co-chair of Disney Media Networks and president of Disney-ABC TV, told an international programming convention in France that Disney has a deal to distribute ABC’s hit “Lost” to 3.2 million mobile- phone customers in the U.K. and the company is creating a new mobile product around a series of video diaries by the characters of “Lost.”
NBC Universal’s digital guru sent a similar message in France. “Content is still king, but the monarchy has been overthrown,” Beth Comstock said. “YouTube, MySpace, iTunes – it’s the invasion of the pronouns in a world all about me.” Big media should get used to sharing control, she said.
Convergence is coming as more consumers figure out how to actively select what they want to watch, and on which gizmo they want to watch it. People are sifting the options rather than sitting still for lowest-common-denominator fare on the old-fashioned tube, like “1 vs. 100.”
There will always be a big center ring at the pop-culture circus, and the latest cash-prize quiz show may be the main attraction. But increasingly there are smaller niches where savvy audiences can find intriguing programming. They can’t all be the greatest shows on Earth, but there are more smart choices out there and more ways to catch them.
TV critic Joanne Ostrow can be reached at 303-954-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com.
