The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum » Why You Won't Be Able To See The "30 Rock" Reunion Special On Thursday

RadioActive · July 14, 2020 5:29 pm

It seemed like a good idea - reunite the cast of the great NBC show "30 Rock" for a virtual special. But it looks like if you get the NBC stations out of Buffalo or Detroit, you won't be able to see it here. That's because stations not owned by NBCUniversal have almost all decided not to show it. And that apparently includes WGRZ and WDIV.

What happened? It turns out the show is a sort of promo in disguise for many NBC-owned services, including its new streaming channel Peacock, which officially launches on Wednesday in the U.S. So most NBC affiliates owned by other companies are refusing to air it, calling it an ad for their competition. And they won't do anything to give the network free advertising at their expense.

A check of the listings for WGRZ in Buffalo (owned by Tegna) shows they're airing alternate programming on Thursday night between 8 and 9 PM - something called "CommUNITY" (not the old comedy) followed by a special answering viewer questions about COVID-19.

Detroit's WDIV, which is owned by the Graham Media Group, is subbing with an hour long special called "Something Good" highlighting positive news in the community.

No Canadian stations were planning to air this, so if you set your DVR to watch it, and unless it turns up ungeoblocked online, you likely won't be able to see it in Canada.

’30 Rock’ Reunion Special Won’t Air On Majority Of NBC Affiliates As Stations Push Back On Peacock Promo

Tq345 · July 15, 2020 7:22 am

I just checked the listings on my new Fibe TV. (thanks Paterson1 for helping me make the decision to get it. Loving it so far 👍)
The special is listed to air at 8pm on NBC Buffalo. Alternate programming is scheduled for 11p on NBC Seattle.
I've set the PVR to record it on NBC Buffalo. We'll see if it actually airs.

Thanks RA for the heads up about the show's existence. I had not known about it until I read your post.

Radio111 · July 15, 2020 7:32 am

Good for them. 30 Rock was a terrible series. I remember when the affiliates had more say on their lineups and did more preemptions.

RadioActive · July 15, 2020 7:34 am

My DVR's guide also has it on WGRZ, but I suspect it hasn't been updated with the new info. A check of the station's own website under schedule shows other programming on at the time. The linked article says Tegna is one of the ownerships that's refusing to air this giant commercial (and if that's what it is, shame on NBC for misusing the memory of such a great show in this way.) Channel 2 is owned by Tegna so I'll be very surprised if it airs there. But we'll see after 8 PM Thursday.

https://www.wgrz.com/tv-listings

RadioActive · July 15, 2020 7:39 am

Radio111 wrote:
Good for them. 30 Rock was a terrible series. I remember when the affiliates had more say on their lineups and did more preemptions.

I think the point isn't whether you liked the show or not, it's that it's being usurped for a corporate purpose that doesn't do anything for the audience that used to watch it. Pick your favourite from TV's vast past. Now imagine watching a much hyped reunion of the cast and finding it was filled with nothing but references to Nike or McDonald's. Pretty disappointing.

I'm actually surprised Tina Fey let her creation be used in this way.

Radio111 · July 15, 2020 8:08 am

That’s nothing new. Product advertising in shows has been around since the 1940s, in fact the series Hazel did a color episode in 1961 just to promote RCA color TVs.

mace · July 15, 2020 8:37 am

Radio111 wrote:
That’s nothing new. Product advertising in shows has been around since the 1940s, in fact the series Hazel did a color episode in 1961 just to promote RCA color TVs.

I have seen that episode. It was the only colour episode in the first season. Lots of references to the colour of Perry Como's eyes. His variety show, also on NBC, finished 25th in the 61-62 season.

mace · July 15, 2020 8:49 am

A possible alternative. Try the streaming site ustvgo.tv. All the U.S. networks are available. The feeds seem to rotate from various cities. In NBC's case, I have seen WTVJ Miami and WNBC New York, both O&O. You may also get WLWT Cincinnati, which is owned by Hearst. If you see local ads with a 513 area code, you are getting WLWT.

RadioActive · July 16, 2020 8:04 pm

It's just after 8 PM, and as expected, no 30 Rock on WGRZ. It's a shame, Yes, it's probably a huge commercial for NBCU properties. But I still wanted to see it anyway.

RadioActive · July 16, 2020 8:14 pm

mace wrote:
A possible alternative. Try the streaming site ustvgo.tv. All the U.S. networks are available. The feeds seem to rotate from various cities. In NBC's case, I have seen WTVJ Miami and WNBC New York, both O&O. You may also get WLWT Cincinnati, which is owned by Hearst. If you see local ads with a 513 area code, you are getting WLWT.

It did turn up on the NBC feed on 123tvnow.com.

ED1 · July 16, 2020 9:27 pm

Telus in Western Canada gets the Boston TV stations (including O&O NBC Boston), and it did air that show here.

RadioActive · July 16, 2020 9:33 pm

Interesting to know that, thanks. I hadn't really thought of Boston. I wonder what will happen on the west coast stations that carry the Pacific time zone versions of the show.

RadioActive · July 16, 2020 9:55 pm

It's very rare that affiliates take the step of censoring or refusing to air a network's show and the Big 4 take a very dim view of it when they do.

I remember several stations - including WKBW - used to pre-empt the old "Dark Shadows," the first supernatural soap opera back in the 60s. I was never sure why, but I never saw a single episode of it here and I remember as a kid wanting to watch it.

There were several other huge network defections that I can recall. One of the first was in 1969, when George Schlatter, of Laugh-In fame, debuted the extremely expensive and very risquee "Turn On" over ABC. Very few people saw it, including those of us trying to watch it on Channel 7 here. The sexual nature of the show, especially in those days, led a number of stations to refuse to air it. One of the most famous was WEWS, the Cleveland affiliate, which cut it off after the first segment and wrote the network a complaint letter that included this famous sentence. "If your naughty little boys have to write dirty words on the walls, please don't use our walls."

It remains the only TV show in history to ever be cancelled before the first episode was over on the East Coast.

Another big boycott took place in 1972, when the lead character in the All In The Family spin-off "Maude" got an abortion. At least 25 stations shunned that episode.

And then there was the debut of "NYPD Blue," which promised swearing and nudity in its controversial 1993 debut episode on ABC. A number of stations refused to air it, fearing viewer reaction. But when it became a ratings hit, they all fell in line and it remains a landmark in helping to mature broadcast network TV, as it began battling the more adult offerings on cable.

Somehow this 30 Rock special doesn't quite hold a candle to any of those.

mace · July 16, 2020 10:55 pm

RA: I believe ABC ran Dark Shadows weekdays at 3:30pm. WKBW preferred to run 90 minutes of Commander Tom.

Paul Jeffries · July 16, 2020 11:32 pm

I remember WGR Channel 2 in Buffalo never aired the first season of Late Night with David Letterman back in 1982. When they changed ownership and their call letters to WGRZ a year later they started showing it. I can't remember what they showed in its place, I think it might have been late-night movies. I suspect they didn't think the show was enough of a draw considering Dave's previous daytime talk show didn't fare too well in the ratings.

PJ

RadioActive · July 16, 2020 11:36 pm

Yes, you're right, Tom Jolls took the place of Barnabas Collins. But I always wanted to see the original - although I doubt the adult me would like it as much as the younger version.

I just took a look at the alternative programming on WGRZ and it was kind of odd. They tape delayed NBC Nightly News until 7:30 PM because of severe weather and possible tornadoes in Buffalo. After Lester Holt signed off, the network ran a promo for the 30 Rock special, which of course, they weren't ever going to air.

So once their alternate programming began, a crawl appeared overhead. Here's what it said:

"The "30 Rock Preview Special" will be available through NBC.com and likely On Demand from your TV service provider." (Although 'service' was misspelled as 'servie' for some reason every time it aired.)

If I were a viewer waiting to see the show and didn't know in advance it wouldn't be on, I would be some kind of P.O.d. But to be fair, at least they told their audience where to find it after all those weeks of hype.

They aired the crawl twice at 8, another two times at 8:30 and then never referred to it again.

RadioActive · July 16, 2020 11:39 pm

Paul Jeffries wrote:
I remember WGR Channel 2 in Buffalo never aired the first season of Late Night with David Letterman back in 1982. When they changed ownership and their call letters to WGRZ a year later they started showing it. I can't remember what they showed in its place, I think it might have been late-night movies. I suspect they didn't think the show was enough of a draw considering Dave's previous daytime talk show didn't fare too well in the ratings.

PJ

Wow, that's one I don't remember at all. What an odd choice to make in a lower viewership time slot!

Tq345 · July 17, 2020 7:28 am

I managed to catch the 30 Rock special on the USTVGO website. It was rather disappointing. It was a 60 minute infomercial for NBC Universal's various platforms with some 30 Rock stuff tying it together.
I must admit the 30 Rock bits were kind of funny with Tracy Jordan becoming a Canadian (including him cleaning a hockey stick with maple syrup) and Jack McBrayer playing both Kenneth and Kenneth's female assistant.
But it was awkward seeing a bunch of NBC "stars" on video conference shilling for the network, its related platforms, and its upcoming season -- although the preview of Ted Danson's new comedy looked interesting enough for me to give it a try when it airs (whenever that will be)
While Tina Fey and the 30 Rock crew made a decent effort, I'm sure they'll look back on last night's show with regret.

mace · July 17, 2020 9:11 am

Just for the record these are the markets with NBC O&O's. NY, LA, Chi, SF, SD, Phil, Bos, Wash, Dal, Mia, Hart and San Juan.

RadioActive · July 17, 2020 9:27 am

Tq345 wrote:
I managed to catch the 30 Rock special on the USTVGO website. It was rather disappointing. It was a 60 minute infomercial for NBC Universal's various platforms with some 30 Rock stuff tying it together.
I must admit the 30 Rock bits were kind of funny with Tracy Jordan becoming a Canadian (including him cleaning a hockey stick with maple syrup) and Jack McBrayer playing both Kenneth and Kenneth's female assistant.
But it was awkward seeing a bunch of NBC "stars" on video conference shilling for the network, its related platforms, and its upcoming season -- although the preview of Ted Danson's new comedy looked interesting enough for me to give it a try when it airs (whenever that will be)
While Tina Fey and the 30 Rock crew made a decent effort, I'm sure they'll look back on last night's show with regret.

I also saw it and I thought many of the 30 Rock segments were pretty good. But the obvious shilling for NBCU product was lame and I can see why so many affiliates balked at airing a corporate commercial for competing services.

The truth seems to be that we would never have seen this at all if not for the Coronavirus. It was an alternate to NBC's annual upfront, where they gather hundreds of people in a convention centre and try to sell their new shows and services to advertisers. That's obviously not possible this year, so this was their solution.

If you just watched the 30 Rock parts and ignored the rest, it was quite entertaining in places. If you have a decent VPN and are curious, you can watch it for free on the NBC.com website.

Media Observer · July 17, 2020 12:52 pm

The limited showing didn't help the ratings.

https://www.thewrap.com/30-rock-reunion-special-nbc-upfront-ratings/

paterson1 · July 17, 2020 1:31 pm

It has been amazing over the last few years to see how low the ratings from the big 4 US networks are. Even though we are in the middle of summer with repeats and the TV schedules are a mess because of COVID, the ratings are incredibly low, even if you take into account recorded viewing later.

30 Rock with 2.5 million viewers, that's like a show having 250,000 tuning in here in Canada. And FOX with the Labor of Love- Season Finale not even cracking 1 million viewers with only 976,000. Yes, the totals will go up somewhat when recorded viewing is added in, and 30 Rock wasn't shown on some affiliates, but these ratings are dreadful, and have been for the last few years.

The Telemundo Network regularly beats the CW in ratings, and it will happen very soon where some of their programming will be besting one of the big 4 in prime time. Possibly it has already happened.

Noticed that NBC's late night hosts have been promoting the new NBC Peacock service in their monologues. I personally don't see anything wrong with his, Seth Meyers has been particularly good. I know some find it a turn off but NBC is going to have a real challenge making it work with so many other competing services that have a big head start on them.

ED1 · July 18, 2020 12:05 am

RadioActive wrote:
Interesting to know that, thanks. I hadn't really thought of Boston. I wonder what will happen on the west coast stations that carry the Pacific time zone versions of the show.

KING-TV in Seattle didn't carry it. I don't know if KHQ Spokane, WA did (Shaw subjects Alberta to the American stations from Spokane, Washington).

mace · July 18, 2020 6:04 am

ED1 wrote:
RadioActive wrote:
Interesting to know that, thanks. I hadn't really thought of Boston. I wonder what will happen on the west coast stations that carry the Pacific time zone versions of the show.
KING-TV in Seattle didn't carry it. I don't know if KHQ Spokane, WA did (Shaw subjects Alberta to the American stations from Spokane, Washington).

KHQ is owned by the Cowles Company, so they probably aired alternate programming.

ED1 · July 18, 2020 12:57 pm

paterson1 wrote:
The Telemundo Network regularly beats the CW in ratings, and it will happen very soon where some of their programming will be besting one of the big 4 in prime time. Possibly it has already happened.

The other major American Spanish-language TV network, Univision, was at various times the most-watched television network in the US, in any language, over the last few years. There's also many markets where the Spanish language local TV newscasts were beating the English language local newscasts.