[Smells Like News] NBC's Problems Are Also 30 Rock's Problems

Did you know 30 Rock returned last night? Don't worry, no one did, because currently the only person watching NBC is Jay Leno's mom. The ratings sucked, but the show itself was great, especially when taking swings at NBC.

Last night, Tina Fey and company only logged 6.3 million viewers, which was down 25% from The Office which preceded it. It's also down almost a third in the adult demographic from the season debut last year, when Fey was hot off her stint as Sarah Palin on SNL. What happened? Well, there wasn't the heat or media attention of the Palin thing, so the only other way to get the word out about the show's return was NBC promos. And since no one is watching the molting peacock, how would anyone see them? Way to kill your only good show, guys.

On the show, NBC and corporate greed in general were definitely the bad guy. The whole episode revolved around the money troubles at the network so they were trying to reach out to middle America. Hm, does that sound anything like a money-strapped network giving away five hours of prime-time real estate to a cheap talk show that only old people and the chronically unfunny will love? Nah.

To spruce up The Girlie Show Jack orders Tracy and Jenna to appeal more to the middlebrow. Tracy does this by trying to get in touch with his roots and Jenna decides to go country. Taylor Swift she is not. And when the network gets her to sing some down-home promo tunes for their sports division, the only thing they have to give her is off-season tennis. That sounds more exciting than the network's current lineup.

When Tracy realizes that Grizz and Dot Com are keeping him in a bubble of privileged, he tries to go out on the street to meet regular folks, but he can't even find the elevator that he's not afraid of. And when he finally makes it outside he terrifies everyone by asking them things like "Are you a pre-op trans-centaur?" Maybe he can Twitter his way into America's hearts!

The biggest showdown with the network came when Kenneth was told that he can't get paid for overtime anymore. When he mistakenly opens Jack's paycheck and is mesmerized by all its zeros, he demands to get his overtime back. Then he finds out that it was Jack's bonus check and he hits his hillbilly roof and organizes a strike (see the clip below). Sure, everyone might see this as a reflection of the way corporate America reacted during the recent economic crisis, but all of us media hounds know that it is really Tina Fey lashing out against the suits in the home office. She is the one who thanked the network in her Emmy acceptance speech for "keeping us on the air even though we're so much more expensive than a talk show." It takes a real lady to stick it to the man.

And that is why we love 30 Rock. They know that they are the network's only good show, so they're not afraid to take countless jabs at the people who pay their salaries. What is NBC going to do? Cancel 30 Rock? The foam from the mouths of angry media elites would be enough to drown everyone at the corporate headquarters. Without 30 Rock the network will have nothing to win Emmys, maintain some street cred, and, you know, actually make people laugh. In the end, the protest is just like the one that Kenneth wages to get Jack to sign a paper saying he is a big fat liar: totally fruitless, but so much fun to watch.

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Posted By sysop to Smells Like News at 10/16/2009 11:44:00 A
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