Snooping Hollywood Journalist Spoils NBC's Big Presentation, Leaks Line-up
At what point do you start feeling sorry for NBC? A Hollywood Reporter journalist journalist just used espionage to leak their new line-up before even advertisers had a chance to look it over.
Hollywood Reporter journalist James Hibberd sneaked into the rehearsal for Monday's upfront presentation at a Hilton hotel in New York, where NBC plans to unveil its new lineup. And, whoops, he got the line-up and the jokes that will be used to introduce them. (As his "30 Rock" character Jack Donaghy, Alec Baldwin will tell the assembled advertisers they are "the bright shining sun in our money universe.") Here's NBC's new line-up, via Hibberd's Livefeed blog.
You will notice NBC is not moving any comedies outside Thursday because, "ultimately we decided that's where our audience expects them." Outsourced, which is replacing Parks & Recreation on Thursday looks pretty interesting: It's based on a romantic comedy about a guy from the mid-west who is put in charge of a call center in India.
As payback, NBC has banned The Hollywood Reporter from covering its meetings and interviews or calls, according to Deadline. Which shouldn't really matter because they obviously do not possess the means to keep James Hibberd from shining the light on all their secrets. Kudos, James Hibberd! Where were you before we invaded Iraq? [THR]