NBC is having so much trouble this season that its ratings-depletion panic may endanger one of its better comedies, “Just Shoot Me.”
Bleeding ratings, partly because of the loss of “Seinfeld” and apathy over network television overall, NBC has been airing two episodes of the wicked workplace comedy back-to-back on Tuesdays (7:30 to 8:30 p.m. on WMAQ-Ch. 5). The show is plugging a huge hole left by “Encore, Encore,” the Nathan Lane comedy savaged by critics, shunned by viewers (pulling “Shoot’s” ratings down in the process) and yanked temporarily from the schedule for the November sweeps.
“Shoot” is getting a rest from double duty this Tuesday, when NBC airs “NewsRadio” in that 7:30 slot, but is there still a danger of overexposure?
Creator Steve Levitan hopes not.
“It concerns me, but when you look at the alternatives, it seems to be the best way to go for the moment,” says Levitan, who grew up in north suburban Evanston and Glenview.
“I wish they had some really hot shows waiting in the wings, but I’m not sure that they do right now. So , we have to sort of take what we can get and we have to just basically do a lot of heavy lifting that night.
“We were in the unfortunate position that our lead-in didn’t quite perform as everyone hoped, so there really weren’t too many options,” continues Levitan, 36. “So we sort of said okay, let’s do it for now as a Band-Aid, and let’s hope that they get a show that will attract a bigger audience in that time slot after the sweeps period.”
That show may be “NewsRadio.” NBC is said to be thinking of putting the series, which shares the same whacked comedic bent as “Shoot,” at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesdays permanently. That could provide a new slot for “Encore” on Wednesdays, where “NewsRadio” currently resides.
Tabbed as a possible replacement when “Seinfeld” was on the way out, “Shoot” is set in the offices of a fashion magazine and stars George Segal as its owner, Laura San Giacomo as his seriously journalistic daughter and David Spade as his suck-up assistant. The show went from a limited-series replacement in March 1997 to a hit over the summer when it was sandwiched between “Friends” and “Seinfeld.”
From midseason series to modest hit, from “Seinfeld” successor to a tough ratings battle with ABC’s “Spin City”–all the hoopla could be a distraction. But Levitan, who has a deal with 20th Century Fox Television to create a comedy for NBC next year, says it hasn’t diverted the cast and crew from maintaining the humor.
“Everything else can be distracting, but at the end of the day, come 5 or 6 o’clock, all those people with those distractions have gone home, and we’re still rewriting and punching up the show,” Levitan says. “All we care about is making the funniest show on television.”
– Time-tripper: Variety recently reported that struggling UPN may abandon its movement to attract a broader viewer base, and instead work to lure more young viewers and men.
Obviously middle America, not too keen on such flops as “Desmond Pfeiffer” and “Mercy Point,” wasn’t going to help sixth-rated UPN climb out of the cellar. And abandoning such African-American shows as “Good News” and “In the House” hasn’t endeared UPN to the audience that supported it in the first place.
But if there is a bright spot for UPN, it is Wednesday night, the network’s most popular thanks to “Star Trek: Voyager” and “7 Days,” one of the cooler new shows of the season.
Airing at 7 p.m. on WPWR-Ch. 50, the sci-fi action series stars Jonathan LaPaglia as the appealing renegade Frank Parker, a rogue government agent who pilots a sphere that can go back seven days in the past to stop a disaster before it happens. The special effects are decent; LaPaglia adds layers to his edgy character, and the supporting cast fits nicely.
Wednesday’s episode works well, as Russian scientist Olga Vukavitch (Justina Vail), who worked on time-traveling technology in her native country, receives a shock with the reappearance of her husband (Ravil Isyanov), who she thought had died in a time-tripping flight years before.
It will come as no surprise that Josef Vukavitch, who went more than 30 years into the future when he disappeared, has ulterior motives, but no matter. “7 Days” is a fast-paced good time–and something UPN probably can build on to take it back to the days when more people were watching.
– Where’s the remote: Producer Frank Spotnitz says “Memento Mori” is his favorite episode. Producer/director Rob Bowman likes ” 731.” Actor Nick “Ratboy” Lea is partial to “Duane Barry.”
Fans of “The X-Files” have been voting on their favorite episodes on the FX cable network, and the results will be revealed Thursday during the second annual 12-hour marathon, which starts at 11 a.m. You still can vote on 114 episodes from the first five seasons until Wednesday at 11:01 p.m. through www.FXnetworks.com.
And in honor of Jimmy Smits’ farewell on ABC “NYPD Blue” Tuesday (a special 90-minute episode starting at 8:30 p.m. on WLS-Ch. 7), FX, which has reruns of the cop show, at 7 p.m. airs Smits’ debut as detective Bobby Simone.
