Will The Voice Save NBC? (Should it?)

I’ve been hoping NBC could get its act together. I mean, the network deserves nearly all the flak it’s been getting: Its programming choices lately haven’t just been bad so much as almost painfully scatterbrained and insecure, and I’m sure they’ve killed at least a couple promising shows by simply having no idea what they’re doing with themselves.

All that said, NBC is home to some of my favorite programming — Chuck, The Office, Community — and is right behind Fox when it comes to putting unique and interesting shows on the air. It’s just way ahead of Fox when it comes to pulling them off the air, because their execution can range from inconsistent to terrible, which is why I keep hoping they’ll get their act together.

Now, it seems like they’ve found a genuine hit: ratings for Tuesday’s second episode of The Voice made short-term history, as it’s the only new show this season to gain viewers the week after its premiere. And while I’m happy that NBC found a way to make people watch it again, I’m not sure it’s great news that this is the show that did it.

News Roundup: More As This Story Develops

There's a new game in town.

Hi, folks. We’ve got some reports from the spring’s biggest shows for you today, so let’s take a look:

• I hate conventional wisdom as much as the next guy, so it was nice to see Ann Powers asking whether teenage girls really are the source of everything that’s wrong with American Idol. Apparently the real problem is that the contestants don’t dance.
• PopEater theorizes that Pia’s gig on Dancing with the Stars last night was some kind of Machiavellian ploy to hurt ratings for NBC’s premiere of The Voice, which is actually pretty believable. It also totally failed.
• In case you haven’t read enough about Michael’s upcoming goodbye from The Office, TV Squad‘s Maureen Ryan has a lengthy exploration of Michael Scott’s legacy, plus an interview with director Paul Feig about Thursday’s goodbye episode.
• Do you want a bunch of really short clues to this season’s CBS finales? TVLine has you covered.