Product placement and over-staffing are hurdles for TV Producers and creators as they work on creating extensions of the original shows. So says Tim Kring, the EP and boss of NBC’s “Heroes” who was chatting on Wednesday at the NATPE jaw-fest in Hollywood.
“At NBC you have this giant corporate, vertically integrated company....The digital division had seven people, and three weeks later there were 67." he explained. "What happened was 67 people all wanted to feel they are controlling this…You throw a bit of sponsorship and product placement into the mix and you have a recipe for all kinds of problems!”
We know, Tim - we've all seen the train-wreck. Like every other network, NBC is infested by a vast litany of people with designer suits, meaningless titles and no creative flair whatsoever, each drawing six-figure salaries for amounts of work no sane person could find with a microscope, and all unshakably convinced that anyone who meets them should be driven to incoherent adoration by their every slightest thought.
The result is televisual oatmeal. Mediocre programs that wouldn't engage the intellect of a mannequin, each bloated with commercials to pay for all this dead-weight. The viewers - who should be your first and over-riding concern - reject this insult to their worth and intelligence in droves, and your Network scores the lowest ratings in the history of the medium.
...Yet nothing changes, and no-one gets fired.
One day, someone in charge of a network will overcome this narcissistic myopia, extract their lips from the advertisers rectums and start making shows to please the audience for a change. But if nobody minds, I won't hold my breath.
