NBC to air expensive TV shows in a bid to improve ratings

A year after its ratings debacle with comedian Jay Leno, NBC has changed course and will air prime-time shows from some of Hollywood’s most expensive producers when the new television season begins this month.

General Electric Co’s entertainment unit, the least- watched major broadcast network for six straight years, opened its coffers to attract Jerry Bruckheimer and J J Abrams, and is introducing seven new shows to recover from last season’s failed experiment with Leno’s talk show in prime time.

“It was time to reinvest,” Jeff Gaspin, chairman of NBC Universal TV Entertainment, said in an interview. “We had spent the last several years shrinking our business by looking at the economics and maybe we went too far.”

 

NBC programmers probably had to earmark $125 million to $150 million for new-show development, about double last year’s total, according to researcher Jack Myers of the Jack Myers Media Business Report. Angela Bromstad, president of prime-time entertainment, declined to say how much NBC spent for new shows or how much Bruckheimer and Abrams commanded.