The Drive for Live

To coax more viewers into watching in the old appointment style — and even sit through the commercials — networks are offering more live programming, pitching it as an experience of communal fun.

“It’s an interesting mixture of old and new media,” says Yahoo! critic Ken Tucker. “They’re trying to get people to watch in real time while also using the social-media construct to tap into the idea of people live-tweeting and using Facebook to comment constantly on what they’re watching.”

That’s part of the business strategy behind NBC’s Undateable going live for its entire third season. “It adds excitement and the feeling of needing to watch it live,” says Bill Lawrence, creator–executive producer of the comedy. “For a lot of shows, a huge part of the problem is awareness, and anything you can do to make people aware you’re even on is a win.”

NBC’s ratings declined by about half from its 2013 live musical event, The Sound of Music, to 2014’s Peter Pan  — perhaps because it was a less beloved show. And a one-time-only live episode of Undateable last season didn’t move the ratings needle. Still, Lawrence believes going live is worth a shot.

“It certainly made the show higher-profile among the people we’re trying to reach,” he says of his experiment. “It put the show in a zeitgeist-y place, which is hard to do with a throwback network sitcom.”

The efforts are ongoing: Fox launched its Ryan Seacrest reality series, Knock Knock Live, in July; NBC will air The Wiz Live! December 3; and Fox will go live with its own musical, Grease, next January.

If the stars should hit a wrong note, the results may still be music to the networks’ collective ears. ”There’s always an element that somebody’s going to screw up on live TV,” Tucker says. “It makes for a whole added level of engagement for the viewer.”