NBC Redecorates The Office

Fri., Mar. 9, 2007 7:04 PM PST by Natalie Finn

In the ongoing quest to figure out how to keep ratings up during the content drought known as repeat week, NBC is doing a little corporate restructuring over at The Office.

Instead of a typical rerun next Thursday, the network is planning to air what are being billed as a "newpeats," or, two reruns stitched together with the addition of previously deleted scenes to create an hour-long slightly new episode.

"Traveling Salesman" and "Oscar's Return" have been given the slice-and-dice treatment and will air from 8 p.m.-9p.m.

"It's about giving something extra to our wonderful fans," The Office executive producer Greg Daniels said. "Their loyalty must be rewarded somehow, and we don't have the budget for 10 million muffin baskets."

Although that loyal audience is probably thinking more along the lines of another Pam-Jim kiss, more antics from Dwight Schrute and the final divestiture of Stamford suck-up Andy (Ed Helms) as a reward for its consistent viewing habits, some unexpected new footage will certainly be a welcome treat for The Office faithful.

The Office actually holds up fairly well in repeats (it's no CSI, but what is?), with 6.5 million people tuning in Mar. 1, compared to 9 million for the most recent brand-new episode on Feb. 22.

My Name Is Earl and the crew over at Dunder-Mifflin currently anchor NBC's Thursday-night comedy lineup, known in its glory days as "Must See TV," and are the network's only sitcoms to rank in the top 100 in the season-to-date Nielsen ratings.

But all of the networks know that it isn't easy to keep millions of people happy, week after week, no matter how popular a show is, or was. (Unless your network happens to air American Idol, of course.)

ABC, for instance, did away with repeats of Lost altogether, instead opting for a three-month hiatus after airing six new episodes last fall. The jury's still out on that one, considering the island mystery-drama hit a series low in viewership last week (12.78 million), despite the fact that Losties are being treated to consecutive new installments for the rest of the season.