Rock Center: "We're not doing this as a ratings play." NBC News Czar Steve Capus

Wash Post's Snidely Whiplash TV critic Lisa de Moraes on NBC's Brian Williams primetime vehicle Rock Center premiering 10p Halloween night: NBC News held a news conference via phone this week with The Reporters Who Cover Television to take questions about the show. But first, a network foursome — the head of NBC News, the show’s senior exec producer, the show’s exec producer and Brian — wanted the reporters to know: ●This is the first time in nearly two decades that a news division has tried to launch a new newsmag. ●The timing is right, what with everything that’s happening around the world. ●NBC News is “uniquely situated” to take on such an ambitious project. (By that, they meant NBC News has MSNBC and CNBC, in addition to the No. 1-rated evening newscast, and the No. 1 morning infotainment behemoth, a.k.a. “Today.” The execs did not mention that NBC is mired in fourth place in prime-time ratings among broadcast networks — thanks mostly to the failure of its entertainment programming and a now-departed management that believed in programming to margins. They also did not mention that “Rock Center” is part of new owner Comcast’s campaign to stanch the bleeding, but there was talk about Comcast suits having come to them when they took over and asking them: “What car is missing in your garage that you’d like to have?” NBC News President Steve Capus also wanted — in a big way — to manage expectations. “We’re not going to sit here and predict for you that we’re going to be a smash hit right out of the starting blocks,” Capus said by way of opening the phoner. “In fact, I actually think it’s going to be the opposite: We’re not doing this as a ratings play. We’re doing this as an attempt to give NBC News . . . an important news outlet in prime time.” (What about “Dateline,” you ask? Glad you did! “Dateline,” the execs on the call explained, is a very successful vehicle for reporting about crime stories. And with that, they thought the subject was closed.) Capus wanted to make it perfectly clear that the show would be moving from its Monday-at-10 berth — a.k.a. NBC’s former “Playboy Club” time slot — in the first quarter. But, unlike reporting on the fate of “The Playboy Club,” he did not want to see any reports that “Rock Center” was being yanked because of lousy ratings. It was preordained that Brian would be yanked from the slot to make way for Marilyn Monroe.