Just in time to follow up to last week's showcasing of the televised misery that is iVillage Live (unbeknownst to us, it was a repeat) comes Brooks Barnes' report that even NBC thinks the show is an utter failure.
After NBC paid $600 million for the lady lifestyle site, they attempted to capitalize on their myriad avenues of synergy with a daytime spin-off show. But even with constant plugs on the Today show and an entire TV program dedicated to plugging the site, traffic to iVillage.com had actually fallen off. Cue the halt in production on iVillage Live, which returns, um, live next month. After some serious tinkering.
NBC's interactive media chief Beth Comstock is not, however, ready to call the show a bust. In one effort to save the hemmoraging, they're relocating the show from Orlando – where they had endless opportunities to plug the Universal Studios theme park – to Chicago, so they can book more celebrity guests. And be closer to Oprah, who owns a little TV network called Oxygen. Which NBC is said to be interested in a possible acquisition of.
Editorial Director
[...] website … dropped. The ratings? Embarrassing. Not that either of those factors would allow NBC to admit its mistakes and kill the [...]
nbc could be good all year and santa still wont give them oxygen.
O is smart. nbc is dumb.
the show sssssssssuuuuuuuuuxxxxxxxxxxx
[...] We've made no secret how much this show, the "brain" child of Beth Comstock, unnerved us. Or maybe it was just the way NBC tried to spin its dismal ratings into a positive. [...]
[...] wondered whether she would survive the company's churn, or just be punished, for the disaster that is iVillage (and its attempts at synergy). Turns out, she's being given a veritable promotion, and the move was carefully orchestrated [...]