This is kinda interesting. In 2012 when NBC had the Super Bowl, they shot a little video to precede it and promote all their shows and stars. Notice if you will what gets a lot of screen time and what doesn't. They single out Smash, which was debuting the day after the Super Bowl…and which was not quite the smash the network expected. They only devoted a few seconds to The Voice, which was their highest-rated show that season, and to The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, which might have been their most profitable.
(A friend of mine who worked on the show with Leno said one of the most impressive things about it was how high its ratings were despite the network doing so little to promote it…and how rarely Jay complained.)
And if you don't blink, you might spot a fast glimpse of Howie Mandel, the sole representative of one of NBC's biggest shows, America's Got Talent. Mandel is allegedly in the crowd scene shot outside in New York and I wonder if he flew there just for that or if that shot was done elsewhere. (While you're at it, see if you can spot Seth Meyers who definitely was in New York.)
Putting together a piece like this, coordinating all the shows and the stars and their shooting schedules, is a helluva lot of cat-herding. As you'll see very few are really singing. There are many copies of this production online but this one includes credits for the musicians and the actual vocalists. It also strikes me as odd that they decided to build the spot around the Frank Loesser song from How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. That was an odd choice because…
- They're singing about the "Brotherhood of Man" at a time when the network was trying to be more inclusive of women viewers and…
- It's a song about how we should forgive incompetence and mediocrity on the part of others.
…but hey, it's a catchy tune and I guess that's all that mattered. And it even has one word in it from Donald Trump…another guy who had a hit show on NBC that's given as little recognition as possible.