Up All Night, which was one of the only bright spots — dim though it was — in last season’s crop of new sitcoms on NBC, suffered from deteriorating ratings as the season went along, in part because the show ostensibly about parenting turned too much focus on Maya Rudolph’s talk show in an effort to capitalize on Rudolph’s post-Bridesmaids success. That plan, however, backfired, and those of us who tuned in for a witty take on parenting were increasingly disappointed.
Flash forward one year, and NBC decided to go in a completely different direction with the show, steering the focus away from Maya’s talk show (which was cancelled), introducing a new character, and refocusing the show on home stories. The result: Up All Night receives the lowest ratings on an already dismally low-rated Thursday night block of comedies. It’s also not any funnier than it was.
So what does NBC do? Do they cancel the show like any reasonable network? Of course not, this is NBC we’re talking about.
After the 11th episode of the season (in December), NBC has decided to put Up All Night on hiatus for three months so it can convert the show from single-camera comedy to a multicamera comedy filmed in front of a live studio audience, i.e., with audience laughter. In other words, they want to turn Up All Night into a CBS show.
Boo!
I hate laugh tracks, and being filmed in front of a studio audience is is the same result. Considering how dismal the ratings for Up All Night are, I have no idea why they didn’t decide to simply put the show out of its misery. People didn’t return to the show after one format change, why would NBC think they’d do so for a second? And why is NBC so invested in the show to begin with? There’s great talent involved — Christina Applegate, Will Arnett, and Maya Rudolph — but it’s become an increasingly generic comedy, scarce on laughs. However, as Variety notes, this is part of NBC’s new strategy to broaden its comedies, like they’ve done with Up All Night and Animal Practice, one of which has already been cancelled, while another is on its way. Smart move, NBC!
The good news, however, is that a three-month hiatus is just enough time to sneak in the final 13 episodes of Community. That’s not been announced yet, but it would make perfect sense to return Community to its former night to complete its run.
(Source: Variety)
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The continued not-coming-back of Community is tearing me apart.
If we can’t beat them, we’ll copy their format – NBC
I think the guy who changes the filters at my local car wash could do a better job of programming than all the NBC execs combined. He could also help if any filters need changing.
Too bad about Up All Night. I have actually learned to like that show a bit more this season, and I’d much rather watch this than another Office episode, or The New Normal. However, if it indicates Community coming back, then fire anything and everything in it’s way to make that happen.
I remember when Comcast was beginning the transition to power they kept saying “we’re going to fix NBC, not repeat the same mistakes, focus on quality and return the network to the powerhouse it once was.” Being that this was Comcast, I was skeptical, since when has Comcast ever been known for quality and not repeating the same mistakes over and over again?
Looks like my skepticism was well-founded.
I didn’t watch “Up All Night” past the pilot, because I didn’t like it even though I like Will Arnett and Christina Applegate. So this move won’t affect me at all. That being said, this is dumb.
I’m assuming that NBC thinks that having a show with Will Arnett will pay off once Arrested Development returns.
That sounds like the logic that a child would use, but once again, NBC.
If that is the case, it seems like it’d be one of NBC’s smarter moves in the last… several years.
Applegate has S&M pics of the president of NBC, doesn’t she?
Does NBC really think the problem is the number of cameras they use?
“Why isnt anyone watching?”
“Well were only using one camera and you know America they always want more!”
I think it’s more along the line of:
“Why aren’t people watching?”
“It’s not a funny show.”
“Well … what if we introduced a studio audience who could show the TV audience when to laugh?”
“That — that just might work! Brilliant!!”
That sounds like the exact conversation that happened. Instead of the two sensible options:
1: Hire a better writing staff that actually knows what humor is.
2: Just put Community back on the air.
At least NBC just spent a quarter of a billion dollars acquiring soccer rights
I love soccer. Watching those kids goof around and pretend they are playing a real sport is so fun… Wait, do you mean the kind where grown men is playing it? Men who aren’t tough enough to play real football? Oh my…
That’s not been announced yet, but it would make perfect sense to return Community to its former night to complete its run.
Perfect sense? C’mon guys, this is NBC we’re talking about…
If anything NBC should have done the exact opposite: drop the whole raising the baby thing (I mean come on there’s a million show just like it) and cranked up Maya’s crazy, neurotic Oprahesque character up to 11.
I never saw it at the beginning, but I started tuning in right around the Rob Huebel episode, which was pretty awesome. I like the show, Arnett and Applegate are great, and it seems like a good fit for Maya Rudolph.
Making it a fucking multicam is the stupidest idea ever. Hopefully NBC can do one better than CBS does theirs, but I doubt it.
STUDIO AUDIENCE? They still film sitcoms that way? NO. This is NOT GOOD.
Lorne Michaels probably has something to do with the non-cancellation, right? Anyway, I don’t watch the show often (though I might if Last Resort aired in a different timeslot), so I don’t care if its comedic value goes down the drain with this change. People do seem to love that canned laughter, though, so hey, maybe Up All Night will become a ratings juggernaut with this change, and that’ll trickle down to all our beloved other Must-See-Thursday shows, whose runs will probably be over by the time the re-re-retooling is over.
Up All Night seems like it would work better as a multi-cam. However whats keeping them from burying that show once and for all?
They’re losing Community, The Office, 30 Rock, and hopefully Whitney. I mean…they have to have some comedies, right? Up All Night at least has a decent premise and a good cast. I guess they figure it’s easier to try to change a sitcom that has an okay start than it is to come up with something new.
I’m not exactly a fan of Up All Night, but I watch it. It started off slow, but it got stronger. This season hasn’t been the same since the Ava Show was cancelled. Reformatting it to be a multi-camera comedy makes no sense. People generally don’t like sitcoms like that anymore. But NBC always likes to kill shows before they cancel them. As long as they don’t mess with or cancel Parks and Recreation (not that they’d have much left after this season if they do cancel that), I’m okay. Looking forward to Community finally returning though.
I love how NBC screwed this show and themselves by changing the plot to benefit from Maya Rudolf’s role in the terribly-overrated Bridesmaids. I wasn’t aware of that until now, but it makes me happy to know that the problems NBC has sound like episodes of 30 Rock. Tina Fey must be able to write those episodes in a few hours.
*flushes toilet* STUDIO AUDIENCE GOES NUTS
I have pulled for this show since the beginning. Applauded the “less Ava” move. Love the new dude, even if he’s trying to be Andy Dwyer. But just last week I found myself saying “oh great. ANOTHER episode dedicated to ‘are we still young and hip? we’re still young and hip, right? we’re not old squares, are we?’” Also…you don’t get TWO reboots.
I have watched every episode of this show….it is a chore and a half……I look at the DVR progress bar and marvel….wow…only 7 minutes have passed and yet it seems like an hour….
I’d watch the revamp if they recast Applegate as a stripper with a heart of gold and Rudolph as a sassy black woman club manager and Arnett as the hapless DJ…
this.
Dis gon b gud!
And by gud, I of course mean terrible.