4/4/2007 1:48:18 PM

Struggling NBC comedy "30 Rock" wins early renewal

Quote :

"LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - NBC, hoping to rekindle the late-blooming success it found with "Seinfeld" and "Cheers," has given a new lease on life to "30 Rock," a critically hailed but marginally rated satire of network television. The future remains more doubtful for another NBC show within a show, "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," the once- ballyhooed drama from "The West Wing" creator Aaron Sorkin now hovering between a second chance and the chopping block. The fate of many such shows will not be sealed until days before the major networks -- NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox and the CW -- unveil their fall 2007 schedules next month at the start of the "upfront" sale of commercial time to advertisers. Reuters Pictures Photo Editors Choice: Best pictures from the last 24 hours. View Slideshow Good news came early on Wednesday for "30 Rock" as NBC announced a second-season renewal of the series, which stars "Saturday Night Live" veteran Tina Fey as the beleaguered head writer of a live TV variety show and Alec Baldwin as her venal, womanizing network boss. Tracy Morgan, another "SNL" alumnus, plays a mentally unhinged star of Fey's fictional TV show on the series, which lampoons network corporate excesses for much of its humor. The show, which Fey created and produces, won a full 22-episode order for the broadcast season that starts next fall, said a spokeswoman for the General Electric Co.-owned network, which has been struggling to rebuild its ratings. Named for NBC's actual address in Manhattan's Rockefeller Center, "30 Rock" has had difficulty finding an audience, averaging a meager 5.8 million viewers a week and ranking 130th among all U.S. prime-time shows in household ratings this season, according to Nielsen Media Research. Continued... Now airing in its third time slot since premiering last fall, the series also faces stiff competition opposite two of U.S. television's biggest hits -- ABC hospital drama "Grey's Anatomy" and CBS police show "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation." CRITICAL FAVORITE Still, the show has drawn Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards for Baldwin and raves from critics. It remains an important part of NBC's two-hour comedy bloc on Thursdays, a highly lucrative night of television once dominated by NBC's "Must-See TV" lineup. "From the beginning, '30 Rock' has proven to be the kind of quality comedy that doesn't come around very often," NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly said in a statement. Reuters Pictures Photo Editors Choice: Best pictures from the last 24 hours. View Slideshow Reilly has said he expects the show to "break through" after being given more time to breathe, following the pattern of past late bloomers that grew into smash hits, like NBC's "Seinfeld" and "Cheers" and CBS's "Everybody Loves Raymond." A big question mark hangs over the future of "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," set behind the scenes of a "Saturday Night Live"-like sketch comedy show. The Sorkin drama was introduced with great fanfare last fall but has languished in the ratings and drawn a fair amount of critical scorn. Benched from NBC's schedule indefinitely, the series officially remains in production with six completed episodes yet to air. But the network has not said whether the show will return next season. Another high-profile NBC series whose future remains uncertain due to a ratings slump is Donald Trump's corporate reality show "The Apprentice," now in its sixth edition. The same is true for NBC's new high school football drama "Friday Night Lights," which won a prestigious Peabody Award on Wednesday, as well as NBC's long-running legal drama "Law & Order.. A number of TV comedies are in danger of extinction at the end of this season, including veteran ABC sitcoms "According to Jim" and "George Lopez," and newer series like "'Till Death" and "The War At Home" from Fox, and "The Class" on CBS. "

just wanted to put it cause it had "struggling" in the title, and i love picking on people that watch "struggling" shows

[Edited on April 20, 2007 at 11:43 PM. Reason : hurrr]

4/5/2007 3:38:27 AM

even though miska is a dumb ugly ho, 2 wrongs dont make a right

[Edited on April 5, 2007 at 12:33 PM. Reason : edit]

4/5/2007 12:20:38 PM

^^

what's the other option? picking on people who watch popular shows?

4/5/2007 12:27:03 PM

honestly i could care less what people watch...but when i saw the story on how it was struggling i figured there had to be a thread for the show so i posted it

disregard my commentary

4/5/2007 12:30:16 PM

you could just have a talking like this contest

4/5/2007 8:28:18 PM

i'd like to see steven seagal, jack bauer, and the current palmer president have a "talking like this" contest

4/5/2007 8:41:07 PM

ohhhhh.... 6.5 years..... too soon?

4/5/2007 9:20:12 PM

oh mann i laffed out loud so many times last night

4/6/2007 9:51:24 AM

the end was the best

4/6/2007 10:04:31 AM

yea stellar episode last night

thomas jefferson on maury was hilarious

pretty much every random tracy saying is good, though.

who did he say the third president was?

4/6/2007 12:20:22 PM

jasper buckleman

4/6/2007 4:15:44 PM

Wow, what an AWESOME episode

4/6/2007 7:52:29 PM

whats that? mc lyte just murdered danny bonaduce??? THANKS PHONE!

4/6/2007 8:03:24 PM

aha watched it again last night and lol'ed in my den

4/8/2007 9:20:33 AM

"You´re going down, Donnaghy!" "No....I don´t do that"

4/8/2007 12:28:22 PM

easily the best comedy out on tv now...NBC shouldnt even think about cancelling the show

4/8/2007 7:08:17 PM

i wouldnt say easily

the office, its always sunny, south park, boondocks, aqua teen and metalocapylse all come to mind

but it is def in competition

4/8/2007 7:22:34 PM

Quote :

"easily the best comedy out on tv now...NBC shouldnt even think about cancelling the show"

4/8/2007 8:05:57 PM

i didnt laugh as much as i have

4/9/2007 8:19:11 AM

Quote :

"easily the best comedy out on tv now...NBC shouldnt even think about cancelling the show "

Agreed. It has surpassed The Office in several ways, at least as far as being a comedy.
Overall, The Office is probably a better TV Show, but they are "constrained by reality", so The Office can only take its comedy so far and have to rely on drama also.

30 Rock, though, has a level of absurdity to it that really gives them a lot of comedic flexibility. I think the writers are committed to keeping 30 Rock more "theater of the absurd" than get dragged into real-life conflicts and drama.

4/9/2007 9:30:17 AM

So, I knew that Jenna's father was named Werner Maroney, but someone just informed me that her mother is named Verna Maroney.

LOL

4/10/2007 12:38:09 PM

hahaha

"Jungle-fever haver"

4/12/2007 9:28:14 PM

JEFFERSON.

4/12/2007 9:36:28 PM

nice - i'm 1/2 way through.
i love this show. it just makes me smile.

"The call is coming from inside the building"

4/12/2007 9:38:21 PM

hilarity ensued

totally bizarre and awesome ep.

4/12/2007 10:21:55 PM

Wow, this show just keeps getting better and better.

4/12/2007 10:57:07 PM

Liz Lemon, you are my Alexander Hamilton

4/12/2007 11:13:17 PM

hahaha

avian bone syndrome

4/12/2007 11:29:45 PM

hahaha that was so absurdly hilarious

4/13/2007 4:22:04 AM

tracy morgan did a great job - he showed more range in that one show than he has in the entire series so far.

Tina Fey is getting even better too. She's really comfortable in that role

4/13/2007 7:19:51 AM

What was the name of his horse? I want to say it was something like Copernicus. Funny stuff.

4/13/2007 8:18:11 AM

Fat Bitch

She's off the leash!

4/13/2007 8:48:23 AM

i can't wait for fat bitch 2

4/13/2007 5:32:33 PM

30 rock eps are keeping me sane without power

4/16/2007 4:35:02 PM

As much as i despise anything baldwin, i am starting to wish i had started watching this when it premiered.

4/16/2007 4:36:35 PM

^^So 2 weeks have passed.

Is it wrong to think Tina Fey is one of the sexiest women on TV? Going all the way to the business suits on Weekend Update?

4/16/2007 4:46:48 PM

Yes, it is very wrong. She is hot in that "I have a scar on my face" kinda way though.

4/16/2007 4:49:14 PM

2 weeks have passed since what?

and she's ok-looking, not the hottest or even hot.

4/16/2007 4:50:22 PM

floyd

4/19/2007 9:32:22 PM

yeah, i really liked liz and floyd together

4/19/2007 9:59:51 PM

i'm gonna make so much money, my grandkids are gonna play lacrosse

4/19/2007 10:46:52 PM

why did he say he was taking the tv??

b/c the judge lost?

4/19/2007 10:55:45 PM

the JETS lost

4/19/2007 11:17:24 PM

damn it they need to wrap up storylines in one show
i don't want this to become a serial type show

4/20/2007 7:20:13 AM

why the fuck not?
serial comedies are awesome

PLZ TO SEE ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT

4/20/2007 8:44:04 AM

arrested development was good but i don't know - i just wanted to see what the fuck jack went to do when he ran away and this whole black crusaders thing get resolved.

i got the impression they were going for a non-serial approach from the first 17 episodes

4/20/2007 8:56:07 AM

the whole thing has been serial since day one...it just hasn't been as cliffhangerish as the past 2 episodes

4/20/2007 9:06:04 AM

Definately keeps getting better.

4/20/2007 11:36:42 AM

as a native clevelander, I loved last night's episode

4/20/2007 11:51:09 AM