• by Wayne Friedman , August 5, 2009

Pasadena, Calif. -- Fourth-place network NBC has its work cut out. But one positive sign is current marketing scores of its new shows -- as well as a promotion boost from the network's top summer hit.

"The way that "America's Got Talent" has been performing is really helping us launch the fall," says Angela Bromstad, president, prime time entertainment, NBC and Universal Media Studios, speaking at the Television Critics Association meeting here.

Big-rated summer shows yield big available ratings points that NBC can put against new shows--something the any fourth-place-rated broadcast network needs. In that vein, John Miller, chief marketing officer of NBC Universal Television Group and president of The NBC Agency, says, "Talent" has been the top-performing summer show for three years.

This year, Miller expects even more help for the summer series -- coupled by the fact that NBC is launching only four new shows. One major push comes with "The Jay Leno Show" at 10 p.m., where NBC has been running a series of spots at 10 p.m., just after "Talent" concludes for some of its weekday episodes.

The good news is that unlike other new broadcast shows, Leno already has an extremely high "awareness" score among TV viewers -- 80% -- due to his longtime association with "The Tonight Show." Miller says Leno's awareness levels are about on par with the Olympics -- virtually every TV viewer knows of it.

The next-best results after Leno this season are probably CBS' "NCIS: Los Angeles" -- mostly because it's a known commodity thanks to its sister show, "NCIS." It has 50% awareness and 20% overall intent-to-view.

Typically, new network TV shows average 40% awareness -- and of those who are aware of this marketing, 40% have intent to view. The overall "intent to view" for new shows -- among all TV viewers -- has been about 16% over the past few years.

"This last number is the most important," says Miller. "Leno" is at 25%, and Miller is pushing to get to 30%. "That would be double the benchmark."

"Our intent scores for all of our shows are over the benchmark," says Miller. "That is unusual." NBC is also launching a comedy, "Community" -- about the strange characters at a community college -- as well as two medical dramas: "Trauma" and "Mercy." Miller says overall intent for these shows is around the teens to mid-20-percent range.

Regarding the "Leno" move to 10 p.m., NBC believes that marketing-wise the new structure is more of a positive than people realize -- especially versus other broadcast network competitors. "It's like the Fox model, but one better. We have five more hours of time to promote more," says Miller.