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monmouth3

(3,871 posts)
Sat May 11, 2013, 07:15 AM May 2013

NBC 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 can’t stay in this building any later than 11 o’clock on Friday unless you’re doing local news and then they throw you out. We do television every week until the moment when you can’t 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

9 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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NBC Cancels 'Rock Center With Brian Williams' (Original Post) monmouth3 May 2013 OP
No loss davidpdx May 2013 #1
I heard Williams once say on some show (Leno I think) that he rurallib May 2013 #2
C SPAN in 2004 alp227 May 2013 #8
Thank you so much. rurallib May 2013 #9
Is it still on? Botany May 2013 #3
Just give me the news. lpbk2713 May 2013 #4
Quell surprise, not! Cleita May 2013 #5
When he was doing reporting on Philly TeeVee PCIntern May 2013 #6
As Joel McHale would say, musette_sf May 2013 #7

davidpdx

(22,000 posts)
1. No loss
Sat May 11, 2013, 08:20 AM
May 2013

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)
2. I heard Williams once say on some show (Leno I think) that he
Sat May 11, 2013, 09:21 AM
May 2013

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)
8. C SPAN in 2004
Sat May 11, 2013, 12:48 PM
May 2013
http://mediamatters.org/research/2005/01/24/nbc-nightly-news-anchor-brian-williams-thinks-l/132611

"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."

Botany

(70,291 posts)
3. Is it still on?
Sat May 11, 2013, 09:27 AM
May 2013

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)
4. Just give me the news.
Sat May 11, 2013, 09:27 AM
May 2013



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)
5. Quell surprise, not!
Sat May 11, 2013, 09:34 AM
May 2013

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)
6. When he was doing reporting on Philly TeeVee
Sat May 11, 2013, 09:56 AM
May 2013

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.

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