How NBCS NBA deal led to cancellations of the series of series

In the last two seasons, NBC canceled a total of five series two at the end of 2023-24 and three in 2022-23.

It corresponded to this total amount on Friday and cut five shows in the largest one-season cleaning of its script line-up since the 2020-21 season (without early series final). Comedies Lopez against Lopez And Night dish and dramas Found, the irrational And Suits LA all were scrapped (however Night dish The producer Warner Bros. says that it will try to find a new home for the show). Dramas in the first year Brilliant headsPresent Great Pointe Garden Society And The hunting party were still in the balance on Friday afternoon; NBC will announce its schedule from 2025-26 on Monday before the preliminary presentation.

While NBC is slowly swinging the ax of cancellation in recent years, the wave of cuts on Friday is not a big surprise. In fact, Network has a few billion reasons to replace his scripting edition next season. If the new NBA deal from NBC Sports a week in the context of its annual rights package of 2.5 billion US dollars dedicates at least one full night of prime time a week.

The difference from season to season in the number of scripting shows will be noticeable. At the time of publication, NBC had only locked up script programs for the next autumn after he had renewed his three Chicago Dramas, two Law & order Series and comedies in the first year Happy's Place And St. Denis Medical. It is likely that at least one Bubble series will receive an extension of the 11th hour. NBC has also renewed The voice For a 28th season in autumn, which takes two or three hours (depending on whether it is broadcast on one or two nights). This ensures 11 hours of entertainment programs, exactly half of the Primetime properties from NBC.

At the beginning of the current season, however, NBC had 13 hours of entertainment program in prime time – all Monday to Thursday and the first hour of Friday evening, the rest of the week was filled on Friday Date limit And college and NFL football on weekends. In spring, this total number grew to 15 hours in most weeks when the entertainment programs took over on Sunday evening.

With the reduction of entertainment lessons, NBC bet that it can draw a similar or larger audience with NBA games than with the canceled shows. And to be fair, this could be a good bet: NBA games of the regular season had an average of 1.53 million viewers at ABC, ESPN and TNT in 2024-25 (over all periods), with the vast majority of the cables with the most people. ABC's seven-game slate of Saturday primetime games from January, although March pulled a little below 3 million viewers; This could be a more suitable benchmark for the Primetime television transmitter from NBC next season (these games will also stream on Peacock).

None of the five shows that NBC canceled on Friday, according to Nielsen, had more than 2.2 million viewers on the same day this season. Found And The irrational In streaming and other delayed consideration, the vast majority of the NBA viewers will watch games live next season, which enables NBC to calculate higher advertising rates, since marketers know that their commercials have a greater probability of being seen by the largest part of the audience.

This does not make the script cuts on Friday for the crews and casts of the canceled series. But with the enormous investment of NBC in the NBA, the (basketball) shoe was always decreasing.