(AP Photo)
Marriage Ref spin-offs in the works, Seinfeld and NBC confirm
March 11, 2010
by shf
NEW YORK (FASTLAUGH.com) — Grateful NBC executives profusely thanked producer-comedian Jerry Seinfeld today for coming to the Peacock Network’s rescue, with the Seinfeld-produced The Marriage Ref placing a comedy tourniquet on their self-inflicted hemorrhage in the Thursday 10 PM time slot.
The Marriage Ref immediately injected life into the moribund time slot most recently held by the ratings-impaired Jay Leno.
Last week, in its first weeknight outing, The Marriage Ref won the coveted 18-49 demographic for its time slot, prompting newly confident NBC executives to immediately begin formulating plans to strip Ref spinoffs across their entire weeknight schedule in the 10 PM time slot as a solid lead-in for its network affiliate’s late local news.
Commenting on his network’s latest face-saving attempt, Jeff Gaspin, Chairman of NBC Universal Television Entertainment, indicated “…we realized that it was time to turn the 10 PM weeknight slot over to Jerry. We don’t know of anyone better qualified to turn nothing into something. The last occupant of the time slot turned something into nothing and very nearly cost me my job.”
Gaspin continued, “We have already green-lighted four premarital and postmarital spin-offs. They are The Roommate Ref, The Divorce Ref, The Custody Ref, and The Inmate Ref. We are most excited about The Inmate Ref since we can reuse prisoners, cell mates, and stories that we’ve encountered while producing Lockup, a long-running prison series appearing on our sister network, MSNBC. How’s that for synergy between NBC Universal’s networks? It almost makes it appear like we know what we are doing.”
Gaspin also confirmed that Jay Leno will be one of three guest panelists on the debut episode of The Inmate Ref, noting, “…that’s about the only way NBC affiliates will ever allow Leno to be seen in weeknight prime time again.”
NBC’s press kit describes The Inmate Ref as being “…just like The Marriage Ref… except the bars are made of steel, not gold and diamonds.”