Should 30 Rock be more popular today - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

TMC · 05-26-2023, 12:57 AM

It won a lot of Emmys and ran for awhile not too long ago. But it seems like you never see it in reruns the way we see would The Office, The Big Bang Theory, or Modern Family.

Duster76 · 05-26-2023, 12:29 PM

The shows TMC mentioned were popular, 30 Rock wasn't, so there's no comparison. It was on 7 years finishing below 100 in the Nielsen ratings 4 times and barely missing on a fifth occasion (99). In the shows highest rated seasons it ranked 69 and 86.

With the Nielsen's the devil is in the detail. The series was popular enough with higher income groups to remain on the air, advertisers looking to reach those income groups knew they could find potential customers watching this series. Basically the sales people could sell 30 Rock. But here's the bad news with respect to reruns, how many of those folks watch reruns, that's one big problem. Sometimes shows are discovered in reruns, but the comedy of this series is subtle and way too niche for it to break out.

I never saw an episode of this series until it was in reruns, I have to admit I was blown away. This show takes the viewer in so many different directions and the comedy arrives from so many different and odd angles, its one of the best comedy series I ever saw, I'd rank the series right up there with all the great ones.

Charles Knox · 05-26-2023, 12:44 PM

No. Just like Alec Baldwin, it deserves to be forgotten.

TMC · 05-27-2023, 03:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charles Knox

No. Just like Alec Baldwin, it deserves to be forgotten.

Incidentally, like literally, a day after I first started this thread, an article on Collider about how badly 30 Rock as a show, has aged was posted.

Other than that, why 30 Rock may not be more popular today? Part of it admittedly may be the Alec Baldwin factor. He was already a very controversial and polarizing figure well before the Rust tragedy. I guess that it's like the Bill Cosby factor, where it's now extremely hard to separate the "art" from the "artists".

Even if Alec Baldwin wasn't an issue, 30 Rock was a show that used jokes and punchlines that were very long or relied on forgotten pop culture. It also may have been too cerebral for general audiences. It was very inside baseball, very New York, super self referential and meta, and it may have moved a lot faster than most American TV viewers were able to deal with. With 30 Rock, you have to be engaged to get everything out of it and therefore, doesn't make for much of a relaxed viewing experience.

30 Rock at the end of the day, was more of an absurdist comedy with no real emotional "will-they-won't-they" romantic plot line like Jim and Pam on The Office or Ben and Leslie on Parks and Recreation The latter shows that I mentioned, were also much more grounded and follow more formulaic plot structures and character development.

Not only that, it was female-led and didn't appear to have any bro humor/class clowns for guys to relate to. Another likely mark against it for really dominating the mainstream as that wasn't really a "family" sitcom. At the end of the day, 30 Rock was a show that asked you to know more about comedy and pop culture.

Charles Knox · 05-27-2023, 08:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TMC

Incidentally, like literally, a day after I first started this thread, an article on Collider about how badly 30 Rock as a show, has aged was posted.

Other than that, why 30 Rock may not be more popular today. Part of it admittedly may be the Alec Baldwin factor. He was already a very controversial and polarizing figure well before the Rust tragedy. I guess that it's like the Bill Cosby factor, where it's now extremely hard to separate the "art" from the "artists".

Even if Alec Baldwin wasn't an issue, 30 Rock was a show that used jokes and punchlines were very long or relied on forgotten pop culture. It also may have been too cerebral for general audiences. It was very inside baseball, very New York, super self referential and meta, and it may have moved a lot faster than most American TV viewers were able to deal with. With 30 Rock, you have to be engaged to get everything out of it and therefore, doesn't make for much of a relaxed viewing experience.

30 Rock at the end of the day, was more of an absurdist comedy with no real emotional "will-they-won't-they" romantic plot line like Jim and Pam on The Office or Ben and Leslie on Parks and Recreation The latter shows that I mentioned, were also much more grounded and follow more formulaic plot structures and character development.

Not only that, it was female-led and didn't appear to have any bro humor/class clowns for guys to relate to. Another likely mark against it for really dominating the mainstream as that wasn't really a "family" sitcom. At the end of the day, 30 Rock was a show asked you to know more about comedy and pop culture.

Its the way he treats fans, those he feels that are beneath him, his kid and maybe ex-wife Kim Basinger that bothers me about him. In my opinion, it was only a mattar of time before something like the Rust incident occcured. I try not to base my opinion of a person just on politics.

stevea · 05-27-2023, 01:16 PM

30 Rock was a show for the critics, Emmy, and network nabobs to gush over. What am I talking about? From Wikipedia:

30 Rock is regarded as a landmark series, and one of the greatest television series of all time, particularly the 21st century. Its series finale in particular has been named as one of the greatest in television history by several publications. In 2013, the Writers Guild of America West named 30 Rock the 21st best-written television series of all time.

But the reality was that very few people were watching. Here are the rating ranks for the 7 seasons: S1 - 102, S2 - 111, S3 - 69 (its best), S4 - 86, S5 - 106, S6 - 130, S7 - 99. Its premiere episode had 8.1 million viewers, and the season 1 finale had 4.7 million.

With ratings like that in 2006-2007, it should have been cancelled after one season. No wonder it was a dud in syndication--it was a 7 season dud in its original run.

Duster76 · 05-27-2023, 04:39 PM

Stevea said:

"But the reality was that very few people were watching. Here are the rating ranks for the 7 seasons: S1 - 102, S2 - 111, S3 - 69 (its best), S4 - 86, S5 - 106, S6 - 130, S7 - 99. Its premiere episode had 8.1 million viewers, and the season 1 finale had 4.7 million".

All that is true, but again the devil is in the detail. The show performed much better with higher income viewers, the sales department can do something with that. They can sell this show to advertisers marketing luxury vehicles, reality companies, any company looking to reach this extremely difficult to reach consumer. Golf did not do well in the overall Nielsen's, but a disproportionate share of the audience were males with higher incomes. These people ran businesses, had expensive cars and spent money on their hobbies. That's how 30 Rock survived. Take a look at Star Trek, the ratings on the original series were terrible, but drill down on those ratings and NBC had a show they could sell to advertisers and get a very good price per minute. Ultimately, that's what the business is about.

30 Rock's strength in the higher income groups is probably its weakness as a rerun. Do those people spend time watching reruns, probably not in high enough numbers for a show to survive in rerun market place.

I do agree with this comment from TMC:

"With 30 Rock, you have to be engaged to get everything out of it and therefore, doesn't make for much of a relaxed viewing experience".

Very astute observation.

05-26-2023, 12:57 AM	#1
TMC Member Forum Idol Join Date: Jan 09, 2001 Posts: 125,029	Should 30 Rock be more popular today It won a lot of Emmys and ran for awhile not too long ago. But it seems like you never see it in reruns the way we see would The Office, The Big Bang Theory, or Modern Family.

05-26-2023, 12:29 PM	#2
Duster76 Member Senior Member Join Date: Mar 01, 2008 Location: New jersey Posts: 1,641	The shows TMC mentioned were popular, 30 Rock wasn't, so there's no comparison. It was on 7 years finishing below 100 in the Nielsen ratings 4 times and barely missing on a fifth occasion (99). In the shows highest rated seasons it ranked 69 and 86. With the Nielsen's the devil is in the detail. The series was popular enough with higher income groups to remain on the air, advertisers looking to reach those income groups knew they could find potential customers watching this series. Basically the sales people could sell 30 Rock. But here's the bad news with respect to reruns, how many of those folks watch reruns, that's one big problem. Sometimes shows are discovered in reruns, but the comedy of this series is subtle and way too niche for it to break out. I never saw an episode of this series until it was in reruns, I have to admit I was blown away. This show takes the viewer in so many different directions and the comedy arrives from so many different and odd angles, its one of the best comedy series I ever saw, I'd rank the series right up there with all the great ones.
	Last edited by Duster76; 05-26-2023 at 01:36 PM.

05-27-2023, 04:39 PM	#7
Duster76 Member Senior Member Join Date: Mar 01, 2008 Location: New jersey Posts: 1,641	Stevea said: "But the reality was that very few people were watching. Here are the rating ranks for the 7 seasons: S1 - 102, S2 - 111, S3 - 69 (its best), S4 - 86, S5 - 106, S6 - 130, S7 - 99. Its premiere episode had 8.1 million viewers, and the season 1 finale had 4.7 million". All that is true, but again the devil is in the detail. The show performed much better with higher income viewers, the sales department can do something with that. They can sell this show to advertisers marketing luxury vehicles, reality companies, any company looking to reach this extremely difficult to reach consumer. Golf did not do well in the overall Nielsen's, but a disproportionate share of the audience were males with higher incomes. These people ran businesses, had expensive cars and spent money on their hobbies. That's how 30 Rock survived. Take a look at Star Trek, the ratings on the original series were terrible, but drill down on those ratings and NBC had a show they could sell to advertisers and get a very good price per minute. Ultimately, that's what the business is about. 30 Rock's strength in the higher income groups is probably its weakness as a rerun. Do those people spend time watching reruns, probably not in high enough numbers for a show to survive in rerun market place. I do agree with this comment from TMC: "With 30 Rock, you have to be engaged to get everything out of it and therefore, doesn't make for much of a relaxed viewing experience". Very astute observation.
	Last edited by Duster76; 05-27-2023 at 10:38 PM.

05-26-2023, 12:44 PM	#3
Charles Knox Member Senior Member Join Date: Apr 17, 2009 Posts: 1,225	No. Just like Alec Baldwin, it deserves to be forgotten.

05-27-2023, 01:16 PM	#6
stevea 22 Years On Sitcoms Moderator Forum Legend Join Date: Aug 13, 2003 Location: Indy Posts: 44,399	30 Rock was a show for the critics, Emmy, and network nabobs to gush over. What am I talking about? From Wikipedia: 30 Rock is regarded as a landmark series, and one of the greatest television series of all time, particularly the 21st century. Its series finale in particular has been named as one of the greatest in television history by several publications. In 2013, the Writers Guild of America West named 30 Rock the 21st best-written television series of all time. But the reality was that very few people were watching. Here are the rating ranks for the 7 seasons: S1 - 102, S2 - 111, S3 - 69 (its best), S4 - 86, S5 - 106, S6 - 130, S7 - 99. Its premiere episode had 8.1 million viewers, and the season 1 finale had 4.7 million. With ratings like that in 2006-2007, it should have been cancelled after one season. No wonder it was a dud in syndication--it was a 7 season dud in its original run.