History Creator / NBC

Starting in 1981, however, NBC quickly turned itself around. They finally ousted Silverman, hired MTM Enterprises co-founder Grant Tinker as chairman and CEO, and put Brandon Tartikoff in charge of programming duties, hoping to end the tide of bad shows. Together, the decisions of Tinker and Tartikoff ended up creating a golden age for NBC; despite a few false starts in 1982 and '''especially''' 1983 (when not one show that premiered that year lasted a full season), the Must-See-TV block of [[SitCom sitcoms]] hit its stride in 1984. The block reigned supreme on Thursday nights for well over a decade, helping the network take #1 in the ratings several years in a row. This two-hour block of primetime included, over the course of TheEighties and TheNineties, such popular shows as ''FamilyTies'' (1982-89), ''{{Cheers}}'' (1982-93), ''NightCourt'' (1984-92), ''TheCosbyShow'' (1984-92), ''{{Seinfeld}}'' (1989-98), ''{{Frasier}}'' (1993-2004), and ''{{Friends}}'' (1994-2004).

Sadly, however, Tinker never properly enjoyed the trappings of the successes at NBC which he had greenlit, having resigned from the network in 1986 to resume independent production.

In 2009, in an effort to cut costs and get back on track, NBC made the controversial (and, in hindsight, [[WhatAnIdiot utterly stupid]]) decision of giving [[AdoredByTheNetwork Jay Leno]] five PrimeTime slots per week for a new VarietyShow, ''The Jay Leno Show'' [[note]]Basically his ''TheTonightShow'' at 10:00 PM with a segment that rips off one from [[TopGear a certain British automotive show]].[[/note]] This was the first time that a network scheduled the same show five nights a week since TheFifties, and the [[InternetBackdraft response]] was both immediate and brutal. TV fans cried it was ruined forever at NBC's decision, saying that it was a lose-lose situation for both the network and television in general — if ''Leno'' failed, the network would have to surrender a third of its PrimeTime lineup to its biggest flop since ''{{Supertrain}}'', but if it succeeded, then the other networks (pressed by falling ratings and advertiser revenue) would follow NBC's lead, making even more cuts to scripted programming in favor of more {{reality show}}s. Feeling that the loss of only one network was preferable to what they saw as the corruption of the entire TV landscape, many people actively cheered for ''Leno'' to fail.

They got their wish the following January when the show's meager, shrinking ratings, combined with fuming network affiliates (who were angry that ''Leno''[='s=] poor ratings were dragging down their nightly {{news broadcast}}s), pushed NBC to cancel ''Leno'', and move Jay back to 11:35. This led to a massive clash with ''Tonight Show'' host ConanOBrien, who resented that his show would be moved forward by a half-hour to make room for a {{retool}}ed ''Leno'', which wouldn't help its own struggling ratings situation (which was due to the news, which was due to ''Leno''). O'Brien ultimately left NBC; Leno returned to ''Tonight'' in March 2010, but not without becoming one of the most hated men on network television in the process. NBC ended the 2009-10 season in the worst shape it had been in since the 1979-80 season — only a small handful of new shows (such as ''Series/{{Community}}'' and ''Series/{{Parenthood}}'') were renewed for a second season, while the 2010 Winter Olympics proved to be a quarter-billion-dollar money pit not unlike that of 30 years earlier.

Also in 2009, GE decided it wanted out and put NBC Universal up for sale; in early December, after months of talks, it was announced that Comcast would get 51% of the company (a controlling interest), with GE keeping the rest. The deal was approved by the FCC in January 2011, but with conditions placed on the deal related to Comcast's high-speed Internet service [[note]]After a controversy over filtering of [=BitTorrent=] traffic in the late 2000s, there were concerns that Comcast would block or limit access to competing services like Netflix as well.[[/note]], as well as a promise not to restrict access to Comcast-owned channels to other service providers. NBC also relinquished a management role in {{Hulu}}, making it a silent partner. It is not yet known whether the sale will help or hurt NBC in its programming ratings, but one of Comcast's first decisions was to fire former network CEO Jeff Zucker, who bore a lot of the blame for NBC's poor performance in the late 2000s and was a key behind-the-scenes figure in the aforementioned late-night wars.

In 2009, in an effort to cut costs and get back on track, NBC made the controversial (and, in hindsight, [[WhatAnIdiot utterly stupid]]) decision of giving [[AdoredByTheNetwork Jay Leno]] five PrimeTime slots per week for a new VarietyShow, ''The Jay Leno Show'' [[note]]Basically his ''TheTonightShow'' at 10:00 PM with a segment that rips off one from [[TopGear a certain British automotive show]].[[/note]] This was the first time that a network scheduled the same show five nights a week since TheFifties, and the [[InternetBackdraft response]] was both immediate and brutal. TV fans cried it was ruined forever at NBC's decision, saying that it was a lose-lose situation for both the network and television in general — if ''Leno'' failed, the network surrendered a third of its PrimeTime lineup to its biggest flop since ''{{Supertrain}}''...but if it succeeded, then the other networks (pressed by falling ratings and advertiser revenue) would follow NBC's lead, making even more cuts to scripted programming in favor of more {{reality show}}s. Feeling that the loss of only one network was preferable to what they saw as the corruption of the entire TV landscape, many people actively cheered for ''Leno'' to fail.

They got their wish the following January when the show's meager, shrinking ratings, combined with fuming network affiliates (who were angry that ''Leno''[='s=] poor ratings were dragging down their nightly {{news broadcast}}s), pushed NBC to cancel ''Leno''...and move Jay back to 11:35. This led to a massive clash with ''Tonight Show'' host ConanOBrien, who resented that his show would be moved forward by a half-hour to make room for a {{retool}}ed ''Leno'', which wouldn't help its own struggling ratings situation (which was due to the news, which was due to ''Leno''). O'Brien ultimately left NBC; Leno returned to ''Tonight'' in March 2010, but not without becoming one of the most hated men on network television in the process. NBC ended the 2009-10 season in the worst shape it had been in since the 1979-80 season — only a small handful of new shows (such as ''Series/{{Community}}'' and ''Series/{{Parenthood}}'') were renewed for a second season, while the 2010 Winter Olympics proved to be a quarter-billion-dollar money pit not unlike that of 30 years earlier.

In 2009, in an effort to cut costs and get back on track, NBC made the controversial (and, in hindsight, [[WhatAnIdiot utterly stupid]]) decision of giving [[AdoredByTheNetwork Jay Leno]] five PrimeTime slots per week for a new VarietyShow, ''The Jay Leno Show'' (basically his ''TheTonightShow'' at 10:00 PM with a segment that rips off one from [[TopGear a certain British automotive show]]). This was the first time that a network scheduled the same show five nights a week since TheFifties, and the [[InternetBackdraft response]] was both immediate and brutal. TV fans cried it was ruined forever at NBC's decision, saying that it was a lose-lose situation for both the network and television in general — if ''Leno'' failed, the network surrendered a third of its PrimeTime lineup to its biggest flop since ''{{Supertrain}}''...but if it succeeded, then the other networks (pressed by falling ratings and advertiser revenue) would follow NBC's lead, making even more cuts to scripted programming in favor of more {{reality show}}s. Feeling that the loss of only one network was preferable to what they saw as the corruption of the entire TV landscape, many people actively cheered for ''Leno'' to fail.

Also in 2009, GE decided it wanted out and put NBC Universal up for sale; in early December, after months of talks, it was announced that Comcast would get 51% of the company (a controlling interest), with GE keeping the rest. The deal was approved by the FCC in January 2011, but with conditions placed on the deal related to Comcast's high-speed Internet service [[hottip:*:(after a controversy over filtering of [=BitTorrent=] traffic in the late 2000s, there were concerns that Comcast would block or limit access to competing services like Netflix as well)]], as well as a promise not to restrict access to Comcast-owned channels to other service providers. NBC also relinquished a management role in {{Hulu}}, making it a silent partner. It is not yet known whether the sale will help or hurt NBC in its programming ratings, but one of Comcast's first decisions was to fire former network CEO Jeff Zucker, who bore a lot of the blame for NBC's poor performance in the late 2000s and was a key behind-the-scenes figure in the aforementioned late-night wars.

Effectively it sort of worked out in the end for the "Olympic network" idea, as Versus's rebranding into the NBC Sports Network and move of Universal Sports to cable means they have two channels to plug in Olympic events near all the time.

-->-- ''Jay Leno'', said during ''both'' [[TheTonightShow Tonight Show]] scandals.

The National Broadcasting Company, owned by [=NBCUniversal=] (a unit of Comcast and General Electric), is the United States' oldest radio and TV network. NBC-TV is famous for its peacock logo, whose original purpose was to promote the network's "living color" broadcasts. For this reason, NBC is sometimes known as "The Peacock Network" or just "The Peacock". Originally founded by set manufacturer RCA to provide people who bought their radios something to listen to, NBC once had two radio networks — NBC Red and NBC Blue. In 1943, NBC Blue was split off in an antitrust lawsuit, and would go on to become Creator/{{ABC}}.

NBC was the first to take color television seriously; CBS had dabbled in it, but their system (which was more complex and required manually switching between black-and-white and color modes) was only ever experimented with for a few years before NBC's all-electronic system took off. NBC also had a tight grip on much of the U.S. radio landscape; they held up the adoption of FM radio for years (and ruined its inventor) because of fear it would put their mostly-AM network out of business. Due to the FCC not allowing non-broadcast companies to own both radio and television assets (General Electric had bought NBC in 1986), NBC finally exited the radio business in the late 1980s, selling what was left of the old NBC Red to Westwood One and the radio stations to various companies (most of them went to Emmis Communications).

It has the most famous address in all of broadcasting - 30 Rockefeller Center, [[BigApplesauce New York, NY]] 10012- with not one but ''two'' shows named after it; ''Series/ThirtyRock'', a SitCom about [[WriteWhatYouKnow TV comedy writers]] and ''RockCenter'', a PrimeTimeNews MagazineShow.


!!1977-1981: NBC lays an egg (the Silverman era)

Before 1977, NBC had typically run a solid #2 to Creator/{{CBS}}. This all changed as Creator/{{ABC}}, with its popular {{Jiggle Show}}s and epic MiniSeries, shot from last place to #1, leaving NBC with "older" shows like ''Series/LittleHouseOnThePrairie''. NBC hired Fred Silverman, the executive who had been responsible for ABC's turnaround, as president and CEO, and he tried gimmick after gimmick trying to increase ratings. Some of the biggest flops in their history, such as ''{{Supertrain}}'', ''Series/PinkLadyAndJeff'', and [[DorkAge the 1980-81 season]] of ''SaturdayNightLive'', date from this era, with only a few successes (''Real People'', ''DiffrentStrokes'') to speak of. The final straw was the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union, which prompted the US Olympic team to boycott the [[OlympicGames 1980 Moscow Olympics]] — and NBC, having pretty much bet the farm on Olympic programming that year, found itself broadcasting an event that Americans, without the home team to root for, couldn't care less about (it only did a grudging ClipShow to keep the diehards who couldn't care less about politics happy). Between RCA funding pie-in-the-sky projects like the [=SelectaVision=] video disc, the shift in TV sales from US brands to Japanese brands [[note]]indeed, some of ''RCA's own products'', specifically their VHS {{VCR}}s, were already being made in Japan by Panasonic[[/note]], and NBC's continued poor performance, some people wondered if the network would be shut down or sold off to keep RCA from going bankrupt.

Indeed, even much of NBC's ''own staff'' thought little of Silverman. On ''SaturdayNightLive'', series writer and occasional performer AlFranken satirized Silverman in a 1980 Weekend Update commentary titled "A Limo For The Lame-O" (part of an ongoing series of commentaries about the 1980s being "the Al Franken decade"), calling Silverman "a total unequivocal failure" and showing a chart of the top 20 network shows, pointing out that there were no big N's on the list; he further said that because of this, Silverman didn't deserve a limo but Franken himself ''did''. Silverman, ostensibly ''not'' one to take a joke, nixed Lorne Michaels' request that Franken succeed him as executive producer of ''SNL'', which not only killed any hope of the 1980s truly being the Al Franken decade, but caused Michaels to be replaced with Jean Doumanian instead, leading to ''SNL'''s DorkAge in the 1980-81 season.

Starting in 1981, however, NBC quickly turned itself around. They finally ousted Silverman, hired MTM Enterprises co-founder Grant Tinker as chairman and CEO, and put Brandon Tartikoff in charge of programming duties, hoping to end the tide of bad shows. Together, the decisions of Tinker and Tartikoff ended up creating a golden age for NBC; despite a few false starts in 1982 and ESPECIALLY 1983 (when not one show that premiered that year lasted a full season), the Must-See-TV block of [[SitCom sitcoms]] hit its stride in 1984. It reigned supreme on Thursday nights for well over a decade, helping the network take first place in the ratings several years in a row. This two-hour block of primetime included, over the course of TheEighties and TheNineties, such popular shows as ''FamilyTies'' (1982-89), ''{{Cheers}}'' (1982-93), ''NightCourt'' (1984-92), ''TheCosbyShow'' (1984-92), ''{{Seinfeld}}'' (1989-98), ''{{Frasier}}'' (1993-2004), and ''{{Friends}}'' (1994-2004). Sadly, however, Tinker never properly enjoyed the trappings of the successes at NBC which he had green lit, having resigned from NBC in 1986 to resume independent production.

After the year 2000, ratings on NBC started to slip across the board, and the glory days of the 1980s and 1990s gave way to years of seemingly intractable poor performance. The once-invincible Thursday night block (currently composed of ''Series/{{Community}}'', the U.S. version of ''TheOffice'', ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'', and ''Series/ThirtyRock'') now faces stiff competition in the {{ratings}} by ''{{Survivor}}'' and ''Series/{{CSI}}'' on Creator/{{CBS}} and by ''GreysAnatomy'' on Creator/{{ABC}}, causing the network to slip into fourth place with ratings more like those on TheCW than on the other three major networks. However, this comes with a consolation prize: NBC has been praised by viewers and critics for frequently pulling off cases of NetworkToTheRescue, protecting critically- and cultly-adored shows even if they are struggling in the ratings (as evidenced by how they refused to cancel ''30 Rock'' and ''The Office'' in their early seasons). The network seemed to be coming back with the success of ''Series/{{Heroes}}'', but a [[SeasonalRot troubled Seasons 2-3]] caused the show's ratings to sink like a rock, ultimately turning the big-budget series into a financial vacuum for the network that led to its cancellation after Season 4.

In 2009, in an effort to cut costs and get back on track, NBC made the controversial (and, in hindsight, [[WhatAnIdiot utterly stupid]]) decision of giving [[AdoredByTheNetwork Jay Leno]] five PrimeTime slots per week for a new VarietyShow, ''The Jay Leno Show''.[[hottip:*:Basically, his ''TheTonightShow'' in a 10:00 PM slot featuring a segment that rips off one from a [[TopGear certain British automotive show.]] This was the first time that a network scheduled the same show five nights a week since TheFifties, and the [[InternetBackdraft response]] was both immediate and brutal. TV fans cried it was ruined forever at NBC's decision, saying that it was a lose-lose situation for both the network and for television in general. If ''Leno'' failed, NBC would've surrendered a third of its PrimeTime lineup to the network's biggest flop since ''{{Supertrain}}'', but if it succeeded, then the other networks, pressed by falling ratings and advertiser revenue, would follow NBC's lead, making even more cuts to scripted programming in favor of more {{reality show}}s. Feeling that the loss of only one network was preferable to what they saw as the corruption of the entire TV landscape, many people actively cheered for ''Leno'' to fail.

They got their wish the following January when the show's meager, shrinking ratings, combined with fuming network affiliates (who were angry that ''Leno''[='s=] poor ratings were dragging down their nightly {{news broadcast}}s), pushed NBC to cancel ''Leno'', and move Jay back to 11:35. This led to a massive clash with ''Tonight Show'' host ConanOBrien, who resented that his show would be moved forward by a half-hour to make room for a {{retool}}ed ''Leno'', which wouldn't help its own struggling ratings situation (which was due to the news, which was due to ''Leno''). O'Brien ultimately left NBC; Leno returned to ''TheTonightShow'' in March 2010, but not without becoming one of the most hated men on network television in the process. NBC ended the 2009-10 season in the worst shape it had been in since the 1979-80 season — only a small handful of new shows ( such as ''Series/{{Community}}'' and ''Series/{{Parenthood}}'') were renewed for a 2nd season, while the 2010 Winter Olympics proved to be a quarter-billion-dollar money pit not unlike that of 30 years earlier.

Also in 2009, GE decided it wanted out and put NBC Universal up for sale; in early December, after months of talks, it was announced that Comcast would get 51% of the company (a controlling interest), with GE keeping the rest. The deal was approved by the FCC in January 2011, but with conditions placed on the deal related to Comcast's high-speed Internet service [[hottip:*:After a controversy over filtering of [=BitTorrent=] traffic in the late 2000s, there were concerns that Comcast would block or limit access to competing services like Netflix as well.]], as well as a promise not to restrict access to Comcast-owned channels to other service providers. NBC also relinquished a management role in {{Hulu}}, making it a silent partner. It is not yet known whether the sale will help or hurt NBC in its programming ratings; however, an early casualty of the merger was former CEO Jeff Zucker, who bore a lot of the blame for NBC's poor performance in the late 2000s and was a key behind-the-scenes figure in the aforementioned Late-Night Wars.

There are four cable networks bearing the NBC name.
* The first is {{MSNBC}}, a [[TwentyFourHourNewsNetworks 24-Hour News Network]]. Originally, the MS stood for Microsoft, and the channel flittered through multiple themes trying to find something to hold onto. Currently, and most successfully, it's the left-wing alternative to the FoxNewsChannel, featuring commentary programs hosted by Rachel Maddow and, formerly, KeithOlbermann. Less successful is their weekend programming, which consists almost of all old episodes of ''DatelineNBC'' and ''Lockup'' a prison doc show.

* Third is the NBC Sports Network, what was known as Versus until the start of 2012 (and until 2005, the Outdoor Life Network). Will be the cable linchpin in NBC's Olympics coverage in the future, and is the main home of the NationalHockeyLeague and cycling coverage in the States such as the full run of the Tour de France. While NBC tries to get better sports rights for their new network (by way of Comcast), you mainly know this channel outside of the NHL for airing plenty of outdoor programming like the programs of Bill Dance and Tred Barta, and sports themed movies (expect that last one to go pretty quickly on).

Having sparred with CBS for coverage contracts through TheNineties, NBC has been the American broadcast home for the OlympicGames since 2000, something that they are notoriously bad at. Their coverage of the 1992 Barcelona Games included three pay-per-view channels that most people weren't willing to pay for, and it was suspected that NBC's coverage was deliberately made terrible to get people to buy the package. Though the company's cable sister channels allow for multiple events, their Olympic coverage focuses on sports that have a lot of media attention, or a sport Americans happen to be particularly competitive at. In an average Summer Games, you'll see a lot of Men's Swimming or Women's Gymnastics, not nearly as much Softball or Archery. NBC has been accused of creating a HumanInterestStory narrative to competitions, and [[CreatorProvincialism focusing almost entirely on Team USA]] to the wide exclusion of other nations. (Their promos for golf's Ryder and Presidents Cups aren't much less partial.) During the 2010 Winter Games in [[StargateCity Vancouver]], NBC was also accused of exploiting the death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili, constantly replaying footage of his fatal crash.

NBC has also produced a few theatrical movies, but none of them - ''Code Name: Emerald'', ''Who's Harry Crumb?'' (a co-production with Tri-Star), ''Elvira: Mistress Of The Dark'', ''Satisfaction'' (in partnership with AaronSpelling, no less) - made much of an impact.

NBC should not be confused with the [[http://www.nbc-nagasaki.co.jp Nagasaki Broadcasting Corporation]], a Japanese TV station sharing the same initials. Also not to be confused with the [[http://www.nbc.com.na/ Namibian Broadcasting Corporation]], you know, just in case you do. Or what people in the United States knew mainly as NBC until the 1930's, the National Biscuit Company, or Nabisco. And heaven forbid that you confuse it for the old abbreviation for [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical,_biological,_radiological,_and_nuclear weapons of mass destruction]]--[[AcceptableTargets they're not doing that bad]].

They got their wish the following January when the show's meager, shrinking ratings, combined with fuming network affiliates (who were angry that ''Leno''[='s=] poor ratings were dragging down their nightly {{news broadcast}}s), pushed NBC to cancel ''Leno'', and move Jay back to 11:35. This led to a massive clash with ''Tonight Show'' host ConanOBrien, who resented that his show would be moved forward by a half-hour to make room for a {{retool}}ed ''Leno'', which wouldn't help its own struggling ratings situation (which was due to the news, which was due to ''Leno''). O'Brien ultimately left NBC; Leno returned to ''TheTonightShow'' in March 2010, but not without becoming one of the most hated men on network television in the process. NBC ended the 2009-10 season in the worst shape it had been in since the 1979-80 season — only one new show (''Series/{{Community}}'') was renewed for a Season 2, while the 2010 Winter Olympics proved to be a quarter-billion-dollar money pit not unlike that of 30 years earlier.

In 2009, in an effort to cut costs and get back on track, NBC made the controversial (and, in hindsight, [[WhatAnIdiot utterly stupid]]) decision of giving [[AdoredByTheNetwork Jay Leno]] five PrimeTime slots per week for a new VarietyShow, ''The Jay Leno Show''.[[hottip:*:Basically, his ''TheTonightShow'' in a 10:00 PM slot featuring a segment that rips off one from a [[TopGear certain British automotive show]] This was the first time that a network scheduled the same show five nights a week since TheFifties, and the [[InternetBackdraft response]] was both immediate and brutal. TV fans cried it was ruined forever at NBC's decision, saying that it was a lose-lose situation for both the network and for television in general. If ''Leno'' failed, NBC would've surrendered a third of its PrimeTime lineup to the network's biggest flop since ''{{Supertrain}}'', but if it succeeded, then the other networks, pressed by falling ratings and advertiser revenue, would follow NBC's lead, making even more cuts to scripted programming in favor of more {{reality show}}s. Feeling that the loss of only one network was preferable to what they saw as the corruption of the entire TV landscape, many people actively cheered for ''Leno'' to fail.

Indeed, even much of NBC's ''own staff'' thought little of Silverman. On ''SaturdayNightLive'', series writer and occasional performer AlFranken satirized Silverman in a 1980 Weekend Update commentary titled "A Limo For The Lame-O" (part of an ongoing series of commentaries about the 1980s being "the Al Franken decade"), calling Silverman "a total unequivocal failure" and showing a chart of the top 20 network shows, pointing out that there were no big N's on the list; he further said that because of this, Silverman didn't deserve a limo but Franken himself ''did''. Silverman, ostensibly ''not'' one to take a joke, nixed Lorne Michaels' request that Franken succeed him as executive producer of ''SNL''... which not only killed any hope of the 1980s truly being the Al Franken decade, but caused Michaels to be replaced with Jean Doumanian instead, leading to ''SNL'''s DorkAge in the 1980-81 season.

In 2009, in an effort to cut costs and get back on track, NBC made the controversial (and, in hindsight, [[WhatAnIdiot utterly stupid]]) decision of giving [[AdoredByTheNetwork Jay Leno]] five PrimeTime slots per week for a new VarietyShow, ''The Jay Leno Show''.[[hottip:*:Basically, his ''TheTonightShow'' in a 10:00 PM slot featuring a segment that rips off one from a [[TopGear certain British automotive show]] This was the first time that a network scheduled the same show five nights a week since TheFifties, and the [[InternetBackdraft response]] was both immediate and brutal. TV fans cried it was ruined forever at NBC's decision, saying that it was a lose-lose situation for both the network and for television in general. If ''Leno'' failed, NBC would've surrendered a third of its PrimeTime lineup to the network's biggest flop since ''{{Supertrain}}''... but if it succeeded, then the other networks, pressed by falling ratings and advertiser revenue, would follow NBC's lead, making even more cuts to scripted programming in favor of more {{reality show}}s. Feeling that the loss of only one network was preferable to what they saw as the corruption of the entire TV landscape, many people actively cheered for ''Leno'' to fail.

They got their wish the following January when the show's meager, shrinking ratings, combined with fuming network affiliates (who were angry that ''Leno''[='s=] poor ratings were dragging down their nightly {{news broadcast}}s), pushed NBC to cancel ''Leno''... and move Jay back to 11:35. This led to a massive clash with ''Tonight Show'' host ConanOBrien, who resented that his show would be moved forward by a half-hour to make room for a {{retool}}ed ''Leno'', which wouldn't help its own struggling ratings situation (which was due to the news, which was due to ''Leno''). O'Brien ultimately left NBC; Leno returned to ''TheTonightShow'' in March 2010, but not without becoming one of the most hated men on network television in the process. NBC ended the 2009-10 season in the worst shape it had been in since the 1979-80 season — only one new show (''Series/{{Community}}'') was renewed for a Season 2, while the 2010 Winter Olympics proved to be a quarter-billion-dollar money pit not unlike that of 30 years earlier.

NBC also owns many other channels, among them [[SciFiChannel Syfy]], [[USANetwork USA]] (home of shows like ''Series/{{Monk}}'' and ''Series/{{Psych}}''), Bravo, Oxygen, [[TheENetwork E!]], Golf Channel, TheWeatherChannel (which is actually a joint venture between NBC Universal and two private equity firms), G4, and PBS Kids Sprout (another joint venture, this one between NBC Universal, Apax Partners, Sesame Workshop and...[[Creator/PBSKids guess]]). Through Comcast they also own plenty of regional sports and news networks. This means that there is often some synergization between the networks, such as former Comcast channel Versus becoming NBC Sports channel and Golf Channel and Sprout getting their own blocks on NBC (Golf Channel on NBC and NBC Kids, respectively).

Finding other methods to watch the Olympics is becoming increasingly common among fans, and those in the northern border states just watch the Games from Canada and miss all the squabbling and complaining (thank you, {{CBC}}). NBC itself is glad to subsidize this process by maintaining a website where full live video is available...presuming your ISP has paid for the privilege. They own a network called Universal Sports which features Olympic sports 24/7, which moved from broadcast digital subchannel distribution at the start of 2012 to cable-only (much to the relief of viewers, as in that guise the video quality seemed to be worse than a web stream due to limited bandwidth). When the United States Olympic Committee dared to suggest they wanted to create their own cable network with Comcast, NBC's whining to daddy (in this case, the International Olympic Committee), as well as Comcast buying control of NBC, made sure that idea was quashed very quickly.

NBC should not be confused with the [[http://www.nbc-nagasaki.co.jp Nagasaki Broadcasting Corporation]], a Japanese TV station sharing the same initials. Also not to be confused with the [[http://www.nbc.com.na/ Namibian Broadcasting Corporation]]... you know, just in case you do. Or what people in the United States knew mainly as NBC until the 1930's, the National Biscuit Company, or Nabisco. And heaven forbid that you confuse it for the old abbreviation for [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical,_biological,_radiological,_and_nuclear weapons of mass destruction]]--[[AcceptableTargets they're not doing that bad]].

In 2009, in an effort to cut costs and get back on track, NBC made the controversial (and, in hindsight, [[WhatAnIdiot utterly stupid]]) decision of giving [[AdoredByTheNetwork Jay Leno]] five PrimeTime slots per week for a new VarietyShow, ''The Jay Leno Show''[[hottip:*:Basically, his ''TheTonightShow'' in a 10:00 PM slot featuring a segment that rips off one from a [[TopGear certain British automotive show]].]]. This was the first time that a network scheduled the same show five nights a week since TheFifties, and the [[InternetBackdraft response]] was both immediate and brutal. TV fans cried it was ruined forever at NBC's decision, saying that it was a lose-lose situation for both the network and for television in general. If ''Leno'' failed, NBC would've surrendered a third of its PrimeTime lineup to the network's biggest flop since ''{{Supertrain}}''... but if it succeeded, then the other networks, pressed by falling ratings and advertiser revenue, would follow NBC's lead, making even more cuts to scripted programming in favor of more {{reality show}}s. Feeling that the loss of only one network was preferable to what they saw as the corruption of the entire TV landscape, many people actively cheered for ''Leno'' to fail.

Before 1977, NBC had typically run a solid #2 to Creator/{{CBS}}. This all changed as Creator/{{ABC}}, with its popular {{Jiggle Show}}s and epic MiniSeries, shot from last place to #1, leaving NBC with "older" shows like ''Series/LittleHouseOnThePrairie''. NBC hired Fred Silverman, the executive who had been responsible for ABC's turnaround, as president and CEO, and he tried gimmick after gimmick trying to increase ratings. Some of the biggest flops in their history, such as ''{{Supertrain}}'', ''Series/PinkLadyAndJeff'', and [[DorkAge the 1980-81 season]] of ''SaturdayNightLive'', date from this era, with only a few successes (''Real People'', ''DiffrentStrokes'') to speak of. The final straw was the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union, which prompted the US Olympic team to boycott the [[OlympicGames 1980 Moscow Olympics]] — and NBC, having pretty much bet the farm on Olympic programming that year, found itself broadcasting an event that Americans, without the home team to root for, couldn't care less about (it only did a grudging ClipShow to keep the diehards who could care less about politics happy). Between RCA funding pie-in-the-sky projects like the [=SelectaVision=] video disc, the shift in TV sales from US brands to Japanese brands [[note]]indeed, some of ''RCA's own products'', specifically their VHS {{VCR}}s, were already being made in Japan by Panasonic[[/note]], and NBC's continued poor performance, some people wondered if the network would be shut down or sold off to keep RCA from going bankrupt.

Before 1977, NBC had typically run a solid #2 to Creator/{{CBS}}. This all changed as Creator/{{ABC}}, with its popular {{Jiggle Show}}s and epic MiniSeries, shot from last place to #1, leaving NBC with "older" shows like ''Series/LittleHouseOnThePrairie''. NBC hired Fred Silverman, the executive who had been responsible for ABC's turnaround, as president and CEO, and he tried gimmick after gimmick trying to increase ratings. Some of the biggest flops in their history, such as ''{{Supertrain}}'', ''PinkLadyAndJeff'', and [[DorkAge the 1980-81 season]] of ''SaturdayNightLive'', date from this era, with only a few successes (''Real People'', ''DiffrentStrokes'') to speak of. The final straw was the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union, which prompted the US Olympic team to boycott the [[OlympicGames 1980 Moscow Olympics]] — and NBC, having pretty much bet the farm on Olympic programming that year, found itself broadcasting an event that Americans, without the home team to root for, couldn't care less about (it only did a grudging ClipShow to keep the diehards who could care less about politics happy). Between RCA funding pie-in-the-sky projects like the [=SelectaVision=] video disc, the shift in TV sales from US brands to Japanese brands [[note]]indeed, some of ''RCA's own products'', specifically their VHS {{VCR}}s, were already being made in Japan by Panasonic[[/note]], and NBC's continued poor performance, some people wondered if the network would be shut down or sold off to keep RCA from going bankrupt.

Whereas [[TouchstonePictures Touchstone Television]] and [[{{Paramount}} Paramount Television]] eventually took on corporate names to match their partners (ABC Studios and CBS Television Studios respectively), NBC's in-house productions like ''{{Smash}}'' and ''Series/ThirtyRock'' now go out under the [[{{Universal}} Universal Television]] banner alongside actual Universal-produced series like ''Series/{{House}}'' and ''Series/{{Parenthood}}'' (as does ''Series/{{The Office|US}}'', a genuine NBC/Universal co-production).

However, even as NBC itself recovered, RCA never got better. When General Electric bought them in 1986, it was mainly for NBC. GE promptly sold the consumer and broadcast electronics divisions to French electronics maker Thomson, the transistor and microchip factories to Harris/Intersil, and the music business to what is now Sony Music. NBC gained an owned-and-operated station from GE, in Denver's KCNC-TV (now a {{CBS}} O&O due to a transaction involving Philadelphia's WCAU-TV).

Before 1977, NBC had typically run a solid #2 to Creator/{{CBS}}. This all changed as Creator/{{ABC}}, with its popular {{Jiggle Show}}s and epic MiniSeries, shot from last place to #1, leaving NBC with "older" shows like ''Series/LittleHouseOnThePrairie''. NBC hired Fred Silverman, the executive who had been responsible for ABC's turnaround, as president and CEO, and he tried gimmick after gimmick trying to increase ratings. Some of the biggest flops in their history, such as ''{{Supertrain}}'', ''PinkLadyAndJeff'', and [[DorkAge the 1980-81 season]] of ''SaturdayNightLive'', date from this era, with only a few successes (''Real People'', ''[[DiffrentStrokes Diff'rent Strokes]]'') to speak of. The final straw was the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union, which prompted the US Olympic team to boycott the [[OlympicGames 1980 Moscow Olympics]] — and NBC, having pretty much bet the farm on Olympic programming that year, found itself broadcasting an event that Americans, without the home team to root for, couldn't care less about (it only did a grudging ClipShow to keep the diehards who could care less about politics happy). Between RCA funding pie-in-the-sky projects like the [=SelectaVision=] video disc, the shift in TV sales from US brands to Japanese brands [[hottip:*:indeed, some of ''RCA's own products'', specifically their VHS {{VCR}}s, were already being made in Japan by Panasonic]], and NBC's continued poor performance, some people wondered if the network would be shut down or sold off to keep RCA from going bankrupt.

After the year 2000, ratings on NBC started to slip across the board, and the glory days of the 1980s and 1990s gave way to years of seemingly intractable poor performance. The once-invincible Thursday night block (currently composed of ''Series/{{Community}}'', the U.S. version of ''TheOffice'', ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'', and ''Series/ThirtyRock'') now faces stiff competition in the {{ratings}} by ''{{Survivor}}'' and ''{{CSI}}'' on Creator/{{CBS}} and by ''GreysAnatomy'' on Creator/{{ABC}}, causing the network to slip into fourth place with ratings more like those on TheCW than on the other three major networks. However, this comes with a consolation prize: NBC has been praised by viewers and critics for frequently pulling off cases of NetworkToTheRescue, protecting critically- and cultly-adored shows even if they are struggling in the ratings (as evidenced by how they refused to cancel ''30 Rock'' and ''The Office'' in their early seasons). The network seemed to be coming back with the success of ''Series/{{Heroes}}'', but a [[SeasonalRot troubled Seasons 2-3]] caused the show's ratings to sink like a rock, ultimately turning the big-budget series into a financial vacuum for the network that led to its cancellation after Season 4.

In 2009, in an effort to cut costs and get back on track, NBC made the controversial (and, in hindsight, [[WhatAnIdiot utterly stupid]]) decision of giving [[AdoredByTheNetwork Jay Leno]] five PrimeTime slots per week for a new {{variety show}}, ''The Jay Leno Show''[[hottip:*:Basically, his ''TheTonightShow'' in a 10:00 PM slot featuring a segment that rips off one from a [[TopGear certain British automotive show]].]]. This was the first time that a network scheduled the same show five nights a week since TheFifties, and the [[InternetBackdraft response]] was both immediate and brutal. TV fans cried it was ruined forever at NBC's decision, saying that it was a lose-lose situation for both the network and for television in general. If ''Leno'' failed, NBC would've surrendered a third of its PrimeTime lineup to the network's biggest flop since ''{{Supertrain}}''... but if it succeeded, then the other networks, pressed by falling ratings and advertiser revenue, would follow NBC's lead, making even more cuts to scripted programming in favor of more {{reality show}}s. Feeling that the loss of only one network was preferable to what they saw as the corruption of the entire TV landscape, many people actively cheered for ''Leno'' to fail.

* The first is {{MSNBC}}, a [[TwentyFourHourNewsNetworks 24-Hour News Network]]. Originally, the MS stood for Microsoft, and the channel flittered through multiple themes trying to find something to hold onto. Currently, and most successfully, it's the left-wing alternative to the FoxNewsChannel, featuring commentary programs hosted by Rachel Maddow and, formerly, KeithOlbermann. Less successful is their weekend programming, which consists almost of all old episodes of ''DatelineNBC'' and ''Lockup'' a prison doc show.
* The second is {{CNBC}}, the Consumer News and Business Channel (not "Cable NBC") which is 24 hours of financial news on weekdays and {{infomercial}}s and business documentaries on weekends (when there is no stock market activity). CNBC also predates MSNBC by seven years; it was a relatively unknown and unpopular channel until NBC bought its older and better-known rival, the Financial News Network, out of bankruptcy in 1991.
* Third is the NBC Sports Network, what was known as Versus until the start of 2012 (and until 2005, the Outdoor Life Network). Will be the cable linchpin in NBC's Olympics coverage in the future, and is the main home of the NationalHockeyLeague and cycling coverage in the States such as the full run of the Tour de France. While NBC tries to get better sports rights for their new network (by way of Comcast), you mainly know this channel outside of the NHL for airing plenty of outdoor programming like the programs of Bill Dance and Tred Barta, and sports themed movies (expect that last one to go pretty quickly on).
* The last is [=ShopNBC=], which was named "[=ValueVision=]" until NBC bought a majority interest in the network. It's not too different from QVC or HSN.

NBC also offered "Weather Plus", a system allowing affiliates to carry a 24-hour local weather service on one of their digital subchannels (with automated local and national content); promptly discontinued following NBC's purchase of TheWeatherChannel in 2008. Eventually, these were replaced on NBC-owned stations by ''Nonstop'' channels, local-news oriented channels whose formula began in New York City, and was later implemented on the network's owned-and-operated stations in LosAngeles, [[TheWindyCity Chicago]], Philadelphia, California (a shared feed for San Diego, San Francisco, and Southern California), and {{Miami}}[=-=]Fort Lauderdale.

The National Broadcasting Company, owned by [=NBCUniversal=] (a unit of Comcast and General Electric), is the United States' oldest radio and TV network. NBC-TV is famous for its peacock logo, whose original purpose was to promote the network's "living color" broadcasts. For this reason, NBC is sometimes known as "The Peacock Network" or just "The Peacock". Originally founded by set manufacturer RCA to provide people who bought their radios something to listen to, NBC once had two radio networks — NBC Red and NBC Blue. In 1943, NBC Blue was split off in an antitrust lawsuit, and would go on to become {{ABC}}.

Before 1977, NBC had typically run a solid #2 to {{CBS}}. This all changed as {{ABC}}, with its popular {{Jiggle Show}}s and epic MiniSeries, shot from last place to #1, leaving NBC with "older" shows like ''Series/LittleHouseOnThePrairie''. NBC hired Fred Silverman, the executive who had been responsible for ABC's turnaround, as president and CEO, and he tried gimmick after gimmick trying to increase ratings. Some of the biggest flops in their history, such as ''{{Supertrain}}'', ''PinkLadyAndJeff'', and [[DorkAge the 1980-81 season]] of ''SaturdayNightLive'', date from this era, with only a few successes (''Real People'', ''[[DiffrentStrokes Diff'rent Strokes]]'') to speak of. The final straw was the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union, which prompted the US Olympic team to boycott the [[OlympicGames 1980 Moscow Olympics]] — and NBC, having pretty much bet the farm on Olympic programming that year, found itself broadcasting an event that Americans, without the home team to root for, couldn't care less about (it only did a grudging ClipShow to keep the diehards who could care less about politics happy). Between RCA funding pie-in-the-sky projects like the [=SelectaVision=] video disc, the shift in TV sales from US brands to Japanese brands [[hottip:*:indeed, some of ''RCA's own products'', specifically their VHS {{VCR}}s, were already being made in Japan by Panasonic]], and NBC's continued poor performance, some people wondered if the network would be shut down or sold off to keep RCA from going bankrupt.

After the year 2000, ratings on NBC started to slip across the board, and the glory days of the 1980s and 1990s gave way to years of seemingly intractable poor performance. The once-invincible Thursday night block (currently composed of ''Series/{{Community}}'', the U.S. version of ''TheOffice'', ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'', and ''Series/ThirtyRock'') now faces stiff competition in the {{ratings}} by ''{{Survivor}}'' and ''{{CSI}}'' on {{CBS}} and by ''GreysAnatomy'' on {{ABC}}, causing the network to slip into fourth place with ratings more like those on TheCW than on the other three major networks. However, this comes with a consolation prize: NBC has been praised by viewers and critics for frequently pulling off cases of NetworkToTheRescue, protecting critically- and cultly-adored shows even if they are struggling in the ratings (as evidenced by how they refused to cancel ''30 Rock'' and ''The Office'' in their early seasons). The network seemed to be coming back with the success of ''Series/{{Heroes}}'', but a [[SeasonalRot troubled Seasons 2-3]] caused the show's ratings to sink like a rock, ultimately turning the big-budget series into a financial vacuum for the network that led to its cancellation after Season 4.

Also in 2009, GE decided it wanted out and put NBC Universal up for sale; in early December, after months of talks, it was announced that Comcast would get 51% of the company (a controlling interest), with GE keeping the rest. The deal was approved by the FCC in January 2011, but with conditions placed on the deal related to Comcast's high-speed Internet service [[hottip:*:After a controversy over filtering of [=BitTorrent=] traffic in the late 2000s, there were concerns that Comcast would block or limit access to competing services like Netflix as well.]], as well as a promise not to restrict access to Comcast-owned channels to other service providers. NBC will also have to give up its stake in {{Hulu}}. It is not yet known whether the sale will help or hurt NBC in its programming ratings; however, an early casualty of the merger was former CEO Jeff Zucker, who bore a lot of the blame for NBC's poor performance in the late 2000s and was a key behind-the-scenes figure in the aforementioned Late-Night Wars.

Finding other methods to watch the Olympics is becoming increasingly common among fans, and those in the northern border states just watch the Games from Canada and miss all the squabbling and complaining (thank you, {{CBC}}). NBC itself is glad to subsidize this process by maintaining a website where full live video is available...presuming your ISP has paid for the privilege. They own network called Universal Sports which features Olympic sports 24/7, which moved from broadcast digital subchannel distribution at the start of 2012 to cable-only (much to the relief of viewers, as in that guise the video quality seemed to be worse than a web stream due to limited bandwidth). When the United States Olympic Committee dared to suggest they wanted to create their own cable network with Comcast, NBC's whining to daddy (in this case, the International Olympic Committee) made sure that idea was quashed very quickly.

Things may get better soon. After the firing of Dick Ebersol, the new regime at NBC Sports promises that they will no longer delay Olympic programming as in the past. Since NBC Universal just purchased the rights to all Olympic Games through 2020, there is no reason not to be cautiously optimistic. Effectively it did work out in the end for the "Olympic network" idea, as Versus's rebranding into the NBC Sports Network and move of Universal Sports to cable means they have two channels to plug in Olympic events near all the time.

In 2009, in an effort to cut costs and get back on track, NBC made the controversial (and, in hindsight, [[WhatAnIdiot utterly stupid]]) decision of giving [[AdoredByTheNetwork Jay Leno]] five PrimeTime slots per week for a new {{variety show}}, ''The Jay Leno Show''[[hottip:*:Basically, his ''TheTonightShow'' in a 10:00 PM slot featuring a segment that rips off one from a [[TopGear certain British automotive show]].]]. This was the first time that a network scheduled the same show five nights a week since TheFifties, and the [[InternetBackdraft response]] was both immediate and brutal. TV fans cried RuinedFOREVER at NBC's decision, saying that it was a lose-lose situation for both the network and for television in general. If ''Leno'' failed, NBC would've surrendered a third of its PrimeTime lineup to the network's biggest flop since ''{{Supertrain}}''... but if it succeeded, then the other networks, pressed by falling ratings and advertiser revenue, would follow NBC's lead, making even more cuts to scripted programming in favor of more {{reality show}}s. Feeling that the loss of only one network was preferable to what they saw as the corruption of the entire TV landscape, many people actively cheered for ''Leno'' to fail.

NBC should not be confused with the [[http://www.nbc-nagasaki.co.jp Nagasaki Broadcasting Corporation]], a Japanese TV station sharing the same initials. Also not to be confused with the [[http://www.nbc.com.na/ Namibian Broadcasting Corporation]]... you know, just in case you do. Or what people in the United States knew mainly as NBC until the 1930's, the National Biscuit Company, or Nabisco.

The network also carries a third service on their O&O stations called "NBC Plus", which are the rusting remains of "NBC Weather Plus", an automated weather network which aired as a digital subchannel on their affiliates until the network purchased TheWeatherChannel in 2008. New York's WNBC has declined to carry the channel in favor of "New York Nonstop", a local-news oriented channel whose formula was later implemented on the network's owned-and-operated stations in LosAngeles, [[TheWindyCity Chicago]], Philadelphia, SanFrancisco, {{Miami}}[=-=]Fort Lauderdale, and San Diego.

----

NBC also owns many other channels, among them [[SciFiChannel Syfy]], [[USANetwork USA]] (home of shows like ''Series/{{Monk}}'' and ''Series/{{Psych}}''), Bravo, Oxygen, [[TheENetwork E!]], Golf Channel, and TheWeatherChannel (which is actually a joint venture between NBC Universal and two private equity firms). Through Comcast they also own plenty of regional sports and news networks.

Whereas [[{{Disney}} Touchstone Television]] and [[{{Paramount}} Paramount Television]] eventually took on corporate names to match their partners (ABC Studios and CBS Television Studios respectively), NBC's in-house productions like ''{{Smash}}'' and ''Series/ThirtyRock'' now go out under the [[{{Universal}} Universal Television]] banner alongside actual Universal-produced series like ''Series/{{House}}'' and ''Series/{{Parenthood}}'' (as does ''Series/{{The Office|US}}'', a genuine NBC/Universal co-production).

NBC is a partner in the video site {{Hulu}} (along with News Corp., Comcast, and The WaltDisney Co.), which hosts free (albeit with commercial interruption) videos of many of its past and present shows.

It has the most famous address in all of broadcasting - 30 Rockefeller Center, [[BigApplesauce New York, NY]] 10012- with not one but ''two'' shows named after it; ''[[Series/ThirtyRock 30 Rock]]'', a SitCom about [[WriteWhatYouKnow TV comedy writers]] and ''RockCenter'', a PrimeTimeNews MagazineShow.

NBC also owns many other channels, among them [[SciFiChannel Syfy]], [[USANetwork USA]] (home of shows like ''{{Monk}}'' and ''{{Psych}}''), Bravo, Oxygen, [[TheENetwork E!]], Golf Channel, and TheWeatherChannel (which is actually a joint venture between NBC Universal and two private equity firms). Through Comcast they also own plenty of regional sports and news networks.

Whereas [[{{Disney}} Touchstone Television]] and [[{{Paramount}} Paramount Television]] eventually took on corporate names to match their partners (ABC Studios and CBS Television Studios respectively), NBC's in-house productions like ''{{Smash}}'' and ''ThirtyRock'' now go out under the [[{{Universal}} Universal Television]] banner alongside actual Universal-produced series like ''Series/{{House}}'' and ''{{Parenthood}}'' (as does ''TheOffice'', a genuine NBC/Universal co-production).

Whereas [[{{Disney}} Touchstone Television]] and [[{{Paramount}} Paramount Television]] eventually took on corporate names to match their partners (ABC Studios and CBS Television Studios respectively), NBC's in-house productions like ''{{Smash}}'' and ''ThirtyRock'' now go out under the [[{{Universal}} Universal Television]] banner alongside actual Universal-produced series like ''HouseMD'' and ''{{Parenthood}}'' (as does ''TheOffice'', a genuine NBC/Universal co-production).

<<|{{Networks}}|>>

They got their wish the following January when the show's meager, shrinking ratings, combined with fuming network affiliates (who were angry that ''Leno''[='s=] poor ratings were dragging down their nightly {{news broadcast}}s), pushed NBC to cancel ''Leno''... and move Jay back to 11:35. This led to a massive clash with ''Tonight Show'' host ConanOBrien, who resented that his show would be moved forward by a half-hour to make room for a {{retool}}ed ''Leno'', which wouldn't help its own struggling ratings situation (which was due to the news, which was due to ''Leno''). O'Brien ultimately left NBC; Leno returned to ''TheTonightShow'' in March 2010, but not without becoming one of the most hated men on network television in the process. NBC ended the 2009-10 season in the worst shape it had been in since the 1979-80 season — only one new show (''{{Community}}'') was renewed for a Season 2, while the 2010 Winter Olympics proved to be a quarter-billion-dollar money pit not unlike that of 30 years earlier.

They got their wish the following January when the show's meager, shrinking ratings, combined with fuming network affiliates (who were angry that ''Leno''[='s=] poor ratings were dragging down their nightly {{news broadcast}}s), pushed NBC to cancel ''Leno''... and move Jay back to 11:35. This led to a massive clash with ''Tonight Show'' host ConanOBrien, who resented that his show would be moved forward by a half-hour to make room for a {{retool}}ed ''Leno'', which wouldn't help its own struggling ratings situation (which was due to the news, which was due to ''Leno''). O'Brien ultimately left NBC; Leno returned to ''TheTonightShow'' in March 2010, but not without becoming one of the most hated men on network television in the process. NBC ended the 2009-10 season in the worst shape it had been in since the 1979-80 season — only one new show (''{{Community}}'') was renewed for a Season 2, while the 2010 Olympics proved to be a quarter-billion-dollar money pit not unlike that of 30 years earlier.

Whereas [[{{Disney}} Touchstone Television]] and [[{{Paramount}} Paramount Television]] eventually took on corporate names to match their partners (ABC Studios and CBS Television Studios respectively), NBC's in-house productions like ''{{Smash}}'' and ''ThirtyRock'' now go out under the [[{{Universal}} Universal Television]] banner alongside [[HouseMD actual]][[{{Parenthood}} Universal-produced]] series (as does ''TheOffice'', a genuine NBC/Universal co-production).