NBC is hoping that 90-year-old Betty White can help revive its sagging prime-time fortunes — much the way Regis Philbin “saved!” ABC with “W
ho Wants To Be a Millionaire.”
“Betty White’s 90th Birthday: A Tribute to America’s Golden Girl” snared a robust 14 million viewers on NBC Monday night, and was followed by over 12 million viewers who stuck around for a sneak peek at White’s new series, “Off Their Rockers” (think “Punk’d” with seniors pulling the jokes).
Those two shows, which gave NBC its best numbers in years (excluding Olympics coverage), forced the network to hastily re-arrange tomorrow night’s lineup, when it will repeat both shows (8 to 10 p.m.) — hoping that lightning strikes twice.
(NBC still hasn’t announced when “Off Their Rockers” will join its schedule on a regular basis.)
“No one person can turn around an entire network, but what I love about this is that, just a few years ago, NBC said it didn’t care about older viewers — and Betty White brought in 14 million viewers, many of whom were ‘older,’ ” says Marc Berman, editor-in-chief of TV Media Insights.
“So this is great,” he says. “Never discount the importance of Betty White.”
White’s late-career resurgence — and its effect on NBC — recalls Regis Philbin’s sudden impact on ABC.
In 1999, the Philbin-hosted “Who Wants To Be a Millionaire” premiered to gangbuster ratings — averaging 28 million viewers, jolting ABC and creating a buzzworthy show that had a relatively long TV shelf life (“Millionaire” aired regularly on ABC through June 2002 and returned for several “specials” thereafter).
Philbin, then 68, claimed to have “saved!” ABC, but his jokey bluster rang true, since “Millionaire” got ABC back in the game and spawned a slew of (short-lived) imitators and a very successful syndicated version (still hosted by Meredith Vieira).
Now, NBC is hoping that White’s popularity — which has been on a nonstop upswing since her appearance two years ago in a Snickers Super Bowl commercial— can help the struggling network.
“Fourteen million viewers is a testament to how beloved she is,” says Berman. “Everybody loves this woman and will follow her anywhere — even to NBC.”