‘Parentood’ season 4: What in the world is NBC doing on New Year’s Day?

When you look at the primetime schedule for the big four broadcasting networks, by and large one thing is pretty clear: no one wants to air much in the way of anything new on January 1, a day in which many people are off celebrating and simply have other things on their mind rather than TV. After all, if they are at home they are probably spending the day watching college football.

So with this in mind, we pose a question to NBC: why in the world air a new episode of “Parenthood” after four reruns of “Betty White’s Off Your Rockers”? You are giving one of your strongest dramas (and a steady ratings performer more often than not) a timeslot that has no potential for a great lead-in, especially when it comes to the key 18-49 demographic that you are looking for with advertisers. In addition to that, we have a feeling that a good many people are not even going to be aware that “Parenthood” is even on. If this was not our job to know, we would have been clueless.

We want to make one thing rather clear here, though, in that we actually don’t mind the network airing a new episode of the show on the night. While some families have traditions, it is not on par with Christmas where everyone is going to just be out having turkey dinners or opening presents. Plus, the weather is so cold up north that many families will be opting to just relax in front of the TV with the heat on, and the lack of competition could held a show like “Parenthood” with a large DVR audience typically. What we object to is the network casting off an episode of their strongest drama series (sorry, “Smash” or “Revolution”) on a night where you’re giving it no support at all, which could hurt potentially its chances at a renewal down the road.

Of course, this is only one issue we have with NBC concerning “Parenthood.” To see our critique on why the network is giving the show continually limited orders, be sure to head over here.

Photo: NBC