Not to get too political, but I always found it amusing when right-wing blowhards would accuse Obama of being a Manchurian candidate (of "Shariah-compliant Islam" or whatever). The whole point of the movie was that it was the right-wing, McCarthyite blowhard who turned out to be the Manchurian candidate. (Which would…

Well it is for now. Hopefully the ratings don't slide even more this spring.

I feel even a simple name change like "C' Town" would've worked.

The last genuine hits NBC launched came in the late '90s (West Wing and Will & Grace). Then all their hits shows ended '04-'06 and they crashed. Throw in some terrible programming choices and cost-cutting moves and they were stuck in last place. The Leno thing sort of sealed it and they've only slid further since.

I mean, just ten years ago, hit shows routinely got over 15 million viewers. NBC cancelled several Thursday night shows that got nearly 20 million viewers only because they had relatively poor retention from Seinfeld and Friends.

Ah, mystery solved. Deleted scene: Donna running the Parks Dept:

Why? Parks is basically steady - upper 1s/low 2s is what it has been drawing all season.

Do yourself a favor and watch seasons 1 and 2 of 30 Rock (esp. S2 - S1 takes about 5-6 episodes to get really its feet).

The danger here is that CBS may move BBT to 9pm, and move Two Broke Girls to 8pm.

They won't, because it's one of their few ratings "successes" but if NBC were willing to move The Biggest Loser - or even just to shorten it to an hour - I think Up All Night could be a self-starter, and on Tuesdays you could pair it somehow with Parenthood - also something of a hit by NBC standards. Either Parenthood…

Why? Based on how UAN did last fall, and how Whitney and Chelsea are doing right now, the 8pm Wednesday block may be no worse than - and could well be better than - the Thursday 8pm block for NBC.

NBC should probably give up on comedy at the 8pm Thursday slot. Given their demographics, they might well be better of running comedy later into the night, from 9-11 or 10-11. They could put Grimm at 8pm Thursday - it probably wouldn't do any better than their comedies do, but as it gets in the mid-1s on a Friday, I…

They do release DVR numbers later, and yes, a lot of the NBC post better numbers then. But advertisers simply won't pay much based on those numbers.

NBC is so screwed. Ratings last night sucked. 30 Rock's premiere only got a 1.8, UAN did only slightly better than it did on Wednesdays, and The Firm bombed with a 1.0.

I felt this way earlier in the season, though I've really liked the last several episodes. Jury's still out on the season as a whole.

It'd probably be Bent/Community, because I can't imagine they'd launch a new show - even one they don't expect much from - at 10:30 at night.

Anybody seen "The Creeping Terror"?

Yeah.

"Could a depressed person make this?! No!"

I'd vote "The Camel" for Parks and Rec. It's thoroughly self-contained, has a simple storyline, and every character gets a solid amount of screen time. It's also f-ing hilarious.