In late-night this evening,
The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brienpremieres (11:34 p.m. ET), continuing a proud NBC tradition that goes back to 1954.
But before that, NBC fills two hours of prime time with I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, reviving a vile ABC tradition that should have stayed buried in 2003. NBC plans to show this live reality show not just once, but nightly, gobbling up hours of prime time all month.
NBC may have just stumbled upon its next branding slogan: "I Used to Be a Network... Get Me Out of Here!"
ABC's "old" Celebrity, based on a British show, wasted time in the jungle, and the time of anyone who tuned in, by alternately flattering and torturing such "celebrities" as Nikki Ziering, Alana Stewart and Downtown Julie Brown. The only thing I remember about it, six years later, has something to do with leeches and Melissa Rivers -- which may sound redundant.
The new series makes room for Sanjaya Malakar from American Idol, Stephen Baldwin from the first Celebrity Apprentice, Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag from The Hills, and former WWE diva Torrie Wilson, shown in the photo atop today's column. Isn't this edition of I'm a Celebrity missing a question mark?
Why revive such an obviously awful idea? Because that seems to be NBC's taste-dead playbook these days. Why else revive Knight Rider, The Bionic Woman, and now this?
What's next? NBC's new version of Are You Hot? The Search for America's Sexiest People? (Don't laugh: ABC presented that piece of guano, too, the same year as I'm a Celebrity.)
This is the same network that once brought us Must-See TV, and Hill Street Blues and St. Elsewhere, and Cheers and Seinfeld?
No, not really. Not even close.
And over the summer, that will become more evident than ever. NBC may be saving money with its new programming approach, but it's losing something more valuable: its reputation.