NBC and “Coupling” aren’t splitting up. Yet.
Despite appearances to the contrary, the Peacock is solidly behind its much-ballyhooed – and critically loathed – new comedy, NBC Entertainment boss Jeff Zucker says.
Still, “Coupling” will be off NBC’s schedule after tonight’s episode through the November sweeps, which begin next Thursday. It will “definitely” return in December, Zucker says, “but I don’t know when and where yet.”
A rip-off of the popular BBC sitcom of the same name (which was a rip-off of “Friends”), “Coupling” revolves around the glandular exchanges among six “hip and frisky” young singles.
“It’s undergoing some growing pains,” Zucker says. “Any time you put a show under the incredibly harsh light of Thursday night on NBC, it gets an undue amount of attention.”
The 9:30 “Coupling” ranks 18th on Nielsen’s Hit Parade this season, averaging 13.1 million viewers. It loses almost three million viewers from its 9 p.m. lead-in, “Will & Grace,” tied for ninth place.
Zucker says the show’s 80 percent audience retention is close to what he’s looking for, but he concedes that the show’s characters “need some more development.”
“The audience doesn’t know them yet. It’s one thing for a friend of yours to tell you a dirty joke. If a stranger tells you, it can be offensive.”
Translation: Characters on “Friends” and “W&G” use bawdy language, but they’re funny and we like them.
Zucker says he used the same scheduling strategy last November, shelving freshman “Good Morning, Miami” from NBC’s “Must See TV” Thursday lineup. He later moved it to Tuesdays, where the Mark Feuerstein sitcom is performing “quite well.”
It’s very difficult to launch new shows on Thursdays “because expectations are so high. We can’t have any weak links,” Zucker says. “There’s no more important night of TV anywhere on any network.”
With “Friends,” “W&G” and “ER,” all veteran hits, Thursday is NBC’s most lucrative night of the week, by far.
Placing a new show there “is probably asking too much. I’m not sure I would do it again. I made this mistake a few times.” (The putrid “Inside Schwartz,” in the 2001-02 season, for example, “was just a bad show.”)
Zucker says he loves the Brits’ “Coupling” (10 p.m. Thursdays on BBC America), which has gotten a boost by “Coupling’s” NBC exposure. If the NBC show relocates to another night, “it will be far more under the radar.”
Moving right along, another big-buzz NBC frosh, “The Lyon’s Den,” with “West Wing” exile Rob Lowe, “is disappointing, so far” at 10 p.m. Sundays, Zucker says.
“I’m surprised. It was a well-made show with a bona fide TV star at its center. I’m hopeful it will pick up.”
On the other end of the spectrum, play taps for Peabody Award-winning “Boomtown,” yanked from its new Friday address. “We’re trying to find a place for it,” Zucker says. Smart money says it’s toast.
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Speaking of NBC, tennis legend Billie Jean King will play a judge in an episode of “Law & Order.” No air date yet.
The back-story: BJ, an “L&O” fiend, recently had her manager pitch a cameo to exec producer Michael Chernuchin. He upped the ante to a judgeship.
Chernuchin arranged for “L&O’s” Jerry Orbach and Sam Waterston to attend the Women’s Sports Foundation fete Monday in New York. (King is founder and honorary chair.)
At the dinner, the actors announced the surprise guest shot as gift to King. At least two other civilians have popped up on the “L&O” bench – writer Fran Leibovitz and Donna Hanover, ex-wife of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
And speaking of “L&O” – and who “isn’t? – Zucker was in New York Wednesday for the 100th-episode bash for “L&O: Special Victims Unit.”
Can we expect a fourth branch of the ever-burgeoning “L&O” franchise?
Says Zucker: “I’m doing background research with the Parking Violations Bureau.”
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AP-NY-10-22-03 1904EDT
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