Who Moved My Office?

Who Moved My Office? by Roxanne McDonald

Missing from the line-up on Thursday, December 7th was The Office. And did some of us panic!

So I’m doing my ritualistic TV Guide search this morning (Thursday, December 12), and having most of my lineup down pat, scratch down the 5:30 (Eastern standard time) and 8:30 (PST) slots with the name of one of the best sit-coms left on television–The Office. But then, as I am perusing, just in case, the online TV guide I am now loving—thank you very much, AOL, for stepping in when my usual TV guide has failed me—I find no episodes this week!

I can feel the panic setting in—the blood pressure rising higher than the usual high, the heart palpitating, the throat constricting….

Not in re-run yet, so I have no fall-back, either.

Then I calm down long enough to look ahead a week:

there, at eight o’clock instead of 8:30, is not only the scheduled half hour but a whole hour!
My Name is Earl, which is equally delightful but of a different style, tone, etc. of humor, was on for an hour this week. The Office is on for an hour next week. Does this mean what I hope and pray it means, or does it only point to yet another strategy on the part of the scheduling giants to try something new, to mix it up, the way major supermarket chains move shit all around the store so customers who have become accustomed to getting exactly what they want when they want it, to getting in and getting out, will now “linger”…or stumble…therefore spending much more time buying more crap they don’t want, need, or can afford?

Granted, mixing up the schedule does not make us stay longer on a station. And the analogy is not exactly apt—even though The Office is deeeeelicious. But somehow changing schedules does something to viewers. I will have to look up the psychology/motivation behind that. That is, is it “sweeps” week? Do regularly scheduled shows step down for Christmas (er, Holiday) specials? Are there bidding wars between Earl and The Office, both of whom are jockeying for the “primest” cut of TV air time—8 p.m.?

But in the meantime, I have to bitch that I hate change of this sort, and would acknowledge that getting a double dose of a superb docu-drama-comedy is a fine consolation…cept we didn’t really get a double, did we?

Addendum: I did a little surfching, and found something close to the “logic” behind scheduling. The Futon Critic features a great article on the pre-September NBC thinking, wherein the writers discuss how Jeff Zucker, president of NBC Universal Television Group rationalizes the upcoming [at that time] fall TV schedule:

“NBC Universal affords us an exciting new relationship to extend the NBC brand and maintain our position as America’s number one network among adults 18-49 for a fifth consecutive year. We’ve presented an incredibly stable, yet exciting new schedule and our freshman programs will offer viewers some of their favorite returning stars and the next wave of new personalities poised to become breakout stars.”

The operative here seems to be stability?…. But then, Kevin Reilly, president of NBC Entertainment also adds, “We have positioned the network to remain in great shape and we will build on that momentum. Our mantra this year is 52 weeks a year of fresh product, programmed when it can best succeed. This has been our objective and today, I think you’ll see that we’ve delivered the goods.”

The key phrase here is programming “when it can best succeed.” Aha. That explains it. Or does it? Anyway, just don’t take my Office away again, puhleease.

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