NBC Prez's "Office" gamble pays off

from the L.A. Times

Up the corporate ladder
The iPod helps turn the fortunes for "The Office," which is becoming a
hit for NBC.
By Scott Collins

Kevin Reilly gambled his job on his own "Office" pool.

Last year, Reilly, NBC's entertainment president, decided to renew

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"The Office," a corporate satire featuring "The 40 Year-Old Virgin"
star Steve Carell, despite first-season ratings so low they made the
rest of the network's tottering schedule look good by comparison.
Reilly's move drew disbelief and even derision from skeptics inside
and outside the company. Why was NBC, which desperately needed hit
shows, wasting time with a show that viewers had obviously rejected?

Reilly, whose job status has been the subject of whispered speculation
on the Hollywood rumor mill for months, admitted that his loyalty to
"The Office" wasn't appreciated by some colleagues at NBC. "I would
have felt exposed, personally and professionally, if this had not
worked," he said in an interview last week.

Luckily for Reilly, "The Office" has, over the last few weeks, turned
into a ray of hope for the fourth-ranked network. Since the start of
this year, its average ratings have jumped 69%, to 9.1 million total
viewers, compared with last spring, according to figures from Nielsen
Media Research. What's more, the series is catching on among the
affluent young-adult viewers who've made up the core of NBC's audience
for decades.

"I always thought this was the classic NBC-type of show," said
executive producer Greg Daniels, a former writer for "Seinfeld" and
"Saturday Night Live." "I don't know if [network executives] thought
that last year," he added with a laugh, "but they do now."

Last week, in a measure of popularity often cited by TV executives,
the program kept a record-high 92% of the viewers ages 18 to 49 who
watched "My Name Is Earl," TV's No. 1 new comedy this season.

As Steve Sternberg, who analyzes programming for New York-based ad
giant Magna Global, points out, "The Office" "appeals to the under-35
audience," while its major competition, CBS' smash "CSI: Crime Scene
Investigation," tends to attract somewhat older viewers.

How did a show that looked moribund in May get so hot in January? In
addition to Reilly's protective wing, the producers caught some lucky
breaks from a hit summer movie, a gutsy scheduling play and even the
ubiquitous iPod.

Perhaps most important, the NBC show has gradually carved out an
identity apart from the successful series that inspired it. "The
Office" is adapted from the BBC program of the same name, created by
Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. Gervais starred as David Brent, a
pathetically inept middle manager at a London-area paper company whose
subordinates are alternately bored and mortified by his antics, which
are captured on tape by documentary filmmakers. The American version
has Carell playing Michael Scott, the feckless boss at a paper company
in Scranton, Pa.

Network executives have often looked overseas for inspiration. CBS'
groundbreaking "All in the Family," for example, derived from the
1966-1975 BBC series "Til Death Us Do Part." But NBC's recent
experience with English imports had been grim. In 2003, "Coupling," an
Americanized version of the randy British sitcom, was savaged by
critics and lasted only four airings. NBC also had big plans for an
adaptation of "The Kumars at No. 42," a popular mock talk-show on
BBC2, but the project never got off the ground.

"The Office" presented some hurdles of its own, because the British
version had become well known among many TV fans thanks to a
successful run on the cable outlet BBC America (Gervais even won a
2004 Golden Globe for his performance, further raising the show's
profile). Early on, the American producers decided to keep many of the
British version's memorable touches, including the absence of a laugh
track and the trick of having the characters tell their stories to
documentary filmmakers. But comparisons were inevitable, and the
website tvsquad.com runs a lengthy discussion board arguing the merits
of each version.

The American producers eventually realized that many viewers were put
off by the funny-but-pathetic tone that prevailed in the BBC series —
in one famously brutal scene, David pretends to fire his secretary,
who is not in on the joke and promptly bursts into tears. So this
season the NBC writers have added more upbeat plot developments, such
as occasionally revealing Michael's (limited) competence. "I think
Americans need a little bit more hope than the British," Reilly said
diplomatically.

"The 40 Year-Old Virgin," meanwhile, grossed more than $100 million at
the U.S. box office and turned Carell into a movie star. (His work on
the upcoming "Evan Almighty," a sequel to "Bruce Almighty," means the
second season of "The Office" will end in late March).

A deal to sell episodes on Apple's iTunes website for $1.99 apiece has
increased awareness among a critical audience segment: college-age
viewers. On Monday, last week's episode — in which someone
mysteriously soiled Michael's office carpet — was the No. 2-selling TV
program on iTunes. "The last time I was in New York, I had three
different people come up to me and go, 'Dude, you're on my iPod,' "
costar Rainn Wilson, who has developed a strong fan base as the
arrogant dweeb Dwight, told reporters earlier this month.

But maybe what helped "The Office" most of all was a move early this
month from Tuesdays to Thursdays, where it's helping revive NBC's
fortunes on a night the network had traditionally dominated. On the
one hand, the switch enabled the show to escape Fox's monster hit
"American Idol," which has returned this winter stronger than ever.

But the Thursday maneuver also reinforced NBC's growing confidence in
the show. Reilly is already comparing the show to another
quintessential urban comedy that tested unimpressively with preview
audiences and was slow to gain traction. Everyone knows how that story
ended.

"My dream," he said optimistically, "is that this is another
'Seinfeld.' "