NBC desperately needs new original shows right now, especially dramas that can compete with NCIS, CSI, and even House. House is low hanging fruit and NBC can't even come within half its audience. Heroes is probably toast and even if it wasn't, it's not competitive with anything. What else does NBC actually have?

30 Rock wins Emmys and is well liked, but it's one of the reasons NBC is in fourth place instead of first and Emmys don't translate to viewers. Just as Mad Men. The Office is a rip-off of a British show that also doesn't have very many people watching it.

At least not in comparison to what the competition has on the air.

After being epically (and rightfully) embarrassed by mishandling The Tonight Show, how does NBC intend to right the ship while filling five new hours of programming per night that's now available with the merciful cancellation of the Jay Leno Show?

I can't even come up with something clever this morning to cover this news. NBC supposedly has a lot of drama pilots ordered but rather than put one of those into play, they're going to fill at least one of the five hours with more illiterate reality programming. That's bad enough, but NBC actually managed to make the situation worse than that. They aren't launching new human-exploitation garbage, they're bringing back the old version of The Apprentice. Yes, you read that right, NBC is rebooting a reality show that was killed off barely three years ago.

This network is so risk averse that it doesn't even have the guts to launch a new reality show, even when these things are basically risk-free by default.

It's stunning.

Every time you think NBC couldn't do anything dumber than what just happened five minutes ago, something like this happens to remind you that you are indeed talking about NBC here.

This mistakes will continue while the current crop of execs still have jobs. There isn't anyone outside of GE that doesn't understand that. There are certainly good and talented people at NBC but they clearly aren't the ones making the big decisions. It's equally clear that the people who are making those decisions will continue dragging that network through the mud until its new owner, Comcast, cleans house.

Hopefully they have more good sense than GE does.