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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNBC Cancels 'Rock Center With Brian Williams'
NBC is turning out the lights on Rock Center With Brian Williams. Deborah Turness to be Named NBC News President
The primetime news magazine, which premiered in October 2011, has been canceled, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter. Rock Center launched March 1 of last year, and though it scored several high-profile interviews during the 2012 election cycle, it never managed to take off. June 21 will be the last show. Rock Center was shuffled from Monday to Wednesday to Thursday and ultimately to Friday earlier this year, where its sophomore ratings averaged just a 1.0 rating among adults 18-49 and just north of 4.1 million viewers. Williams, who has another full-time job in hosting NBC Nightly News, has been vocal in his frustration with the many moves.
"We get to program the last hour of primetime for the broadcast week," he told THR in April. "You cant stay in this building any later than 11 oclock on Friday unless youre doing local news and then they throw you out. We do television every week until the moment when you cant do any more."
But kidding aside, NBCUniversal made a large investment in the show, hiring a staff of 100 and building out a mod new set for Williams. But while the show has had some scoops including Bob Costas' riveting phone interview with Jerry Sandusky and Williams considerable time with President Obama, it failed to establish a ratings foothold that would keep it on the schedule.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/nbc-cancels-rock-center-brian-520842
davidpdx
(22,000 posts)Hey I hear Fox is hiring...
A funny aside, I was helping on the 1996 campaign in Oregon and was working at an event greeting media and saw Williams.
rurallib
(62,346 posts)listened to Rush Limbaugh daily to get a feel for what the people thought - something to that effect. Must have been somewhere @ 2000 or 2001. Haven't listened to a word he has said since.
alp227
(31,962 posts)"I do listen to Rush. I listen to it from a radio in my office, or depending on my day, if I'm in the car, I will listen to Rush. And he will tell you I've been listening for years. I think it's my duty to listen to Rush. I think Rush has actually yet to get the credit he is due, because his audience for so many years felt they were in the wilderness of this country. No one was talking to them."
rurallib
(62,346 posts)Botany
(70,291 posts)I saw 15 minutes of it once a few years ago and that was it as far as
me watching that show.
lpbk2713
(42,696 posts)Keep the hype, the drama, the window dressing.
It's a real turn off when it's obvious they are trying to sell me a shiny package.
Cleita
(75,480 posts)I never watched it and I don't know anyone who did. Frankly, none of what was being covered interested me.
PCIntern
(25,347 posts)he was generally laughed at by our street-smart, savvy folk. you can say a lot of bad things about us but the one thing you really can't do to the Philly populus is bullshit them for any length of time.
musette_sf
(10,184 posts)"Meow"