It used to be that picking on NBC was wholesome fun for the whole family. You'd open with some gags about Jeff Zucker supersizing something, segue to a few riffs on Ben Silverman and Knight Rider, then wrap it all up with a couple of knocks on Whitney. It was the kind of thing you and the wife and kids could do around the dinner table, like you were on the cover of the Game of Life, only now, it was the game of making fun of NBC. But lately, all that mockery of NBC's utter ineptitude to behave like an actual television network, instead of a more boutique outfit has started to feel just a little bit hollow. After all, NBC may be the Claire's Accessories to CBS' K-mart, but, dammit, you can get some awfully nice things at Claire's Accessories that you can't get at K-mart, even if Claire's keeps hiding its most precious items in the back and saying they'll be sold again in the "spring," whatever that means.
The latest data point for mocking NBC? The network opened February sweeps last night with a bang by… falling into a statistical tie with Univision for fourth place. (Univision actually narrowly beat NBC in average total viewers, helped immensely by the fact that NBC's 10 p.m. show, The Firm, continued to tank horribly.) This is absolutely good news for Univision, the surging young Spanish-language network that had one of the youngest audiences in TV right now. It's considerably less good news for NBC, however, particularly when you consider that 30 Rock, which leads off the night for the network, posted a 1.3 in the adults 18-49 demo and an incredibly low 1.1 in the 18-34 demo. That number was enough for The CW to post a tie in the 18-34 demo with the network with Vampire Diaries. Now, Vampire Diaries is a good show, but if NBC is tying with The CW (the Spencer Gifts of the TV network 1989 shopping mall) in anything at anytime, it's probably time for the network to sit down and take some time to think about what it's done. Both shows were narrowly beaten in the 18-34 demo by Univision's El Talisman, which sounds kind of awesome, no? (30 Rock led both shows narrowly in total viewers, posting 3.21 million viewers to Talisman's 3.17 million for its first half hour and Vampire's 2.87 million for its first half hour.)
Compared to 30 Rock, Parks & Recreation looked positively smashing, grabbing a 1.8 (with a 1.9 in the 18-34 demo, nearly doubling 30 Rock's numbers) and 3.65 million viewers. That was enough to beat both El Talisman and Vampire Diaries, which for NBC is pretty good. After The Office, Up All Night matched Parks' performance in both demos and grabbed 3.76 million viewers, which, honestly, is worse than it was doing in a terrible Wednesday timeslot with no lead-in and barely any promotion. This same weird drop-off bedeviled Parks last season. What on Earth is happening after The Office ends? Are people checking out the second half of Grey's Anatomy en masse? (Actually, Univision's La Que No Podia Amar beat Up All Night in total viewers quite handily, so maybe that's where everybody went.)