Newsgroup: it.fan.tv.friends
Titolo: La NBC non puo' permettersi di perdere Friends

EW.com
Why NBC can't afford to lose ''Friends'' -- To keep its Must-See TV
night alive, the Peacock needs to rehire its pricey cast while
developing a new comedy replacement by Liane Bonin
'FRIENDS' TO THE END Aniston, Schwimmer, and Kudrow, along with the
rest of the cast have become close over the years
While the cast of ''Friends'' has hinted that they're ready to hang up
their coffee mugs, NBC is already jonesing for a refill. At this
week's Television Critics Association press conference, NBC president
Jeff Zucker admitted that convincing the cast to stick around for a
ninth season was the network's ''No. 1 top priority,'' adding that
contract discussions are currently underway.
This undoubtedly means a large boost to each ''Friends'' actor's
$750,000 per episode fee. Luckily, NBC is getting used to cutting
extravagant paychecks. The network recently shelled out $30 million to
keep Jane Leeves on the set of ''Frasier'' for three more seasons (her
costars David Hyde Pierce and Kelsey Grammer are already raking in
$750,000 and $1.6 million per episode, respectively). But is spending
tens of millions on aging sitcoms (a misstep NBC made in 1999 with
''Mad About You'') the only way to keep NBC's must-see TV status? And
what if the Friends just say no?
''I'd bet my house that 'Friends' is coming back," says MediaWeek
analyst Marc Berman, who suspects the cast's farewell hints are just
negotiating ploys. ''And it's imperative that the show does come back
because NBC doesn't have a single comedy that could inherit that time
period.'' Though the network has spent the last eight years searching
for sitcoms that can equal ''Friends''' ratings in the 8:30 p.m. slot,
''Jesse,'' ''The Single Guy,'' ''Veronica's Closet,'' ''Union
Square,'' and the recently canceled ''Inside Schwartz'' have all
fizzled.
And moving established shows like ''Frasier'' or ''Will & Grace'' into
the ''Friends'' timeslot would be risky. '''Frasier'' has been the
only show to thrive on Tuesdays, which have been a problematic night
for NBC since the 'A-Team' went off the air,'' says Steve Sternberg, a
media analyst at Magna Global USA. ''So moving 'Frasier' to Thursdays
would create an even bigger problem on Tuesdays.''
As for ''Will & Grace,'' the show may be a little too edgy for the
family-friendly 8 p.m. slot. But if it does move up an hour, ''there's
the question of what to put at 9 p.m., since 'Just Shoot Me' is too
old to anchor a whole hour,'' says Berman. NBC had looked to its new
hospital sitcom ''Scrubs'' to shore up the Thursday line-up, but that
series hasn't performed well enough to be a serious post-''Friends''
contender. ''It's an adequate show, but it's not a hit,'' says Berman.
''And I don't think it has the legs to become one.''
So, for now, NBC needs ''Friends'' if it's going to hold onto its
Thursday night dominance. At the same time, the network needs to
develop the perfect sitcom to take its place, since it's unlikely the
cast will return for more than a season or two. ''So far what NBC's
been doing wrong is going to the producers and writers of their hits
and giving them this plum timeslot to try out another show,'' says
Berman, noting that ''Friends'' producer David Crane developed the
stinkers ''Veronica's Closet'' and ''Jesse.'' ''NBC has to stop going
back to the same talent pool and start looking for new
creative minds.''
The jury's still out on whether the latest 8:30 p.m. contender, ''Leap
of Faith,'' breaks the mold. On the bright side, the show, which stars
''Jack & Jill'''s Sarah Paulson, is the brain child of ''Sex and the
City'' producer Jenny Bicks, who could bring an edgy HBO slant to NBC.
But the premise, about a woman who turns to her friends for support
after calling off her wedding to a handsome, wealthy attorney, sounds
a tad familiar. Let's just hope she doesn't show up at her friend
Monica's house wearing a dripping wet wedding dress.
-- 
j.

fizzled.
se non fosse andata cosi' i nostri sei amici avrebbero gia' ricevuto
una bella pedata dalla NBC;)