30 ROCK: A ONE-TIME SPECIAL
NBC, 8:00 p.m. ET
The promos for this one-shot 30 Rock special are hilarious – but whether and where you can see it depends upon your location and ingenuity. Tina Fey and company designed this One-Time Special as a one-hour comedy, parody and promotional vehicle, with a plot built around the no-longer-in-person NBC upfronts (which promote the planned fall season to advertisers), including either actual or tongue-in-cheek promos for NBC Universal shows and its brand new Peacock streaming site. But at the last minute, more than half the country’s NBC affiliates have rebelled against televising the prime-time 30 Rock special, complaining that it gives too much prominence and promotional airplay to Peacock, a direct threat to local broadcast stations. You can still see 30 Rock in most major cities, because the stations in those bigger markets tend to be owned and operated by the network itself – but if you can’t, NBC Universal is rubbing salt in the wounds of those annoyed local stations by replaying the 30 Rock special, one day later, on such NBC Universal-owned cable networks as Syfy and USA Network. And, of course, also on a one-day-later basis on Peacock itself. And the idea of local NBC broadcast stations refusing to air what is likely to be their most entertaining TV show since Saturday Night Live stopped doing At Home pandemic specials? Well, put that right in the super-stupid “Cut Nose, Spite Face” file…Just the sight of Fey’s Liz Lemon screaming at New Yorkers who aren’t properly socially distancing, and screaming behind a mask that shows her screaming (pictured), is enough to make it a classic.