NBC takes first step: admits it has problem

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — If NBC has entered into a 12-step program, the network's top programmer has, at least, taken Step 1. He's no longer denying there's a problem with the once-proud network, which has fallen from first to fourth in the ratings.

"While it was tough sledding, the truth is that the kick in the (butt) is going to get us back on our game," said NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly. "Really, last season for us was kind of a colonic. It wasn't a lot of fun to go through at the time, but it's going to be healthy in the long run. It literally took any residual sense of entitlement or complacency at our company and blew it out."

NBC without arrogance? That may be the most revolutionary thing to happen to television since color replaced black and white. And it was a long time coming — even in the midst of last season's ratings free fall, Reilly and his boss, NBC-Universal president Jeff Zucker, were bluffing their way through, insisting everything was just fine.

"There was denial. That's human nature. I think we're all in that mode," Reilly said. "We all believed that we could do something."

But they couldn't. Reilly and his team had high hopes for shows like "Revelations," "The Contender" and "The Office," none of which caught on in the ratings. (Although "The Office" will return for a second season.)

"Ultimately, our momentum was down. We were out of business at (7) o'clock in some time periods. We just couldn't launch these programs, so the denial was there."

But Reilly and the new, humble NBC aren't denying they're in trouble now. Oh, he's still vowing to turn the network around — as has every executive who ever took over a struggling network before (with sporadic success at best) — but he's talking about the long term.

"I don't know if you're going to see a ratings difference this year. I think you could. Odds are we're not going to see a ratings difference," he said. "I'm pretty damn sure you're going to see a new tone coming out of this place, a new creative spirit in terms of the way we market things, in terms of the way we position ourselves in the marketplace. I really mean that. That sense of entitlement of who we think we are is gone."

Of course, all of Reilly's talk about teamwork was undercut by the fact that this marked the first time since he became an NBC programmer that Zucker — the man most responsible for driving NBC into the ground — left Reilly alone onstage to take questions from critics. Zucker was there, but he had an NBC publicist on a short leash running interference for him.