Advertisement

NBC bringing back ‘Marriage Ref,’ ‘Minute to Win It’ and ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’

Share

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Looks like NBC thinks this Jerry Seinfeld guy may have some legs.

The network has picked up ‘The Marriage Ref,’ the relationship game show executive-produced by Seinfeld for next season. The former sitcom star also occasionally pops up on the show.

A second season for ‘The Marriage Ref’ is not that big a surprise given Seinfeld’s involvement and his history with NBC. Still, its numbers have tailed off sharply since its premiere in early March. ‘The Marriage Ref’ made its time-period debut on March 4 and attracted 7.7 million viewers and a 3.4 rating among adults 18-49. Last week, it averaged 5.4 million viewers and a 2.3 rating with adults 18-49. Each rating point in the 18-49 demographic equals 1.3 million viewers.

Advertisement

In fairness, March was a tough month as the show faced off against the NCAA basketball tournament for a few weeks. Last week its lead-in was a rerun of ‘The Office.’

‘It is doing great for us,’ said Paul Telegdy, NBC’s executive vice president of alternative programming. NBC, he said, has ordered 13 episodes of ‘The Marriage Ref,’ three of which will be used for this season and 10 for next season.

NBC also picked up its new game show ‘Minute to Win it’ and ‘Who Do You Think You Are?,’ a program hosted by Lisa Kudrow that traces the ancestry of famous people.

Telegdy would not say if any of the three shows would be on the fall schedule. ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ has performed well on Fridays, a night where the bar is definitely lower. Last week, the show actually beat CBS’ ‘The Ghost Whisperer’ in adults 18-49. Currently the show is averaging 6.8 million viewers and a 1.6 rating in the demographic.

‘Minute to Win It’ has faced intense competition on Sunday night from CBS’ powerhouse ‘Amazing Race.’ Last week, NBC ran a repeat of the show on Wednesday night and it managed to finish second in adults 18-49 and viewers.

-- Joe Flint

Advertisement