NBC on Hannibal: Their Envelope Pushing Show

Robert Greenblatt, chairman of NBC Entertainment and Jennifer Salke, President of NBC Entertainment, were on hand at this summer's TCA (Television Critics Association) press tour this afternoon to talk about their upcoming programming slate.

While there, they touched upon Hannibal, a show that looked to be on the cancellation bubble as the network headed into Upfronts earlier this year. Hannibal struck many as an odd series for NBC from the outset, the graphic content combined with the serialized nature of the show felt like a better fit for cable. In fact, the "premium network tone," according to Salke, may be Hannibal's appeal for the network, as they want to "send a message" to attract the creators of other high concept, "event" television programming.

"On Hannibal we recognize that that show really pushes the envelope a lot," Salke said when asked if she felt that the show was pushing the limits of what is acceptable on network TV. "I think, for us, it’s important, in a world where these cable shows are beloved and infringing on real estate that was network real estate, obviously, we need to send a message to the community and to creators like Bryan Fuller and David Slade, who work on that show, that we support a big, risky event kind of vision like that. And in fact, it is paying off for us because as development season starts and writers come in and you all know – there was a cynical attitude toward Hannibal from the very beginning, with people, fans, saying, 'Oh, it’s on NBC. They’re going to pull it off at some point. It will never really live there. I don’t know why it’s there. I’m confused why it’s there to begin with.' I think it was just critical to send a message that we would support a show like that at 10 o’clock and that we would support a creator with a vision that felt like it was a little bit out there on the gangplank as far as content."

As to the soft ratings on the series in its first season, Greenblatt seemed somewhat optimistic.

"Time shifting is here," he said. "We all know that. We live with it. We always appreciate when you report beyond just the premiere night ratings, but it’s interesting to see the sort of growth of some of our shows when you look at the L+7 ratings. We have eight series that grow by 50 percent or more in 18 49, Hannibal, Grimm, Revolution, Parenthood, Chicago Fire and a few others that are no longer on the schedule, but 82 percent boost for Hannibal out of the time period is really significant."

Of course events like the press tour are designed for networks to put on their most positive face, but for now, it looks as though NBC’s view is that the serial killer drama is an asset, and one that is relatively low cost for them as a co-production. We shall see where Season 2 takes the series, and can only hope that it finds a bit more of an audience.

Source : ign[dot]com