NBC: Summer doesn’t mean lame TV anymore

NBC Entertainment Chair Robert Greenblatt was in a chipper mood Sunday at the start at the Television Critics Association summer press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif. Why shouldn’t he be? His network has made quite the turn around in the ratings both in total viewers and the kep adult demo (18 to 49 year olds).

Part of Greenblatt’s ebullience also can be traced to more recent events: a successful summer for the Peacock net. NBC has dominated the ratings every week so far this summer except for the two weeks that ABC hosted the NBA Finals.

“We used to just throw the shows on in the summer that we didn’t have much faith in,” the Rockford native and University of Illinois grad said, adding that’s no longer the case.

Broadcast networks are under increasing pressure to up the ante in the summer (see: CBS’s debut last year of the big-budget series “Under the Dome”) thanks to the myriad options viewers have in cable and streaming services. Reruns and lame burn-off series simply don’t cut it in the warm weather months anymore.

Greenblatt noted that the new summer medial drama “The Night Shift” has delivered and then some, debuting to a 1.6 in the demo — higher than some fall drama debuts and tying with CBS’s much more publicized summer premiere of “Extant” starring Oscar winner Halle Berry. It’s also the strongest summer drama launch for NBC in 14 years. (I didn’t care for it; you can read my review here.)

“It found a loyal audience very quickly,” Greenblatt said about “The Night Shift,” which the net recently announced would be back for another season.

Greenblatt announced Sunday the renewal of three other popular summer series: “America’s Got Talent,” “American Ninja Warrior” and “Last Comic Standing.”