Sean Hayes: NBC 'just doesn't have the eyeballs' to make my show a hit

Sean Hayes: NBC ‘just doesn’t have the eyeballs’ to make my show a hit

By Scott Collins

Oct. 23, 2013 6:19 PM PT

Sean Hayes thinks his new sitcom is the best. It’s the network that he’s less than thrilled about.

Hayes, who shot to fame on “Will & Grace,” is the star of “Sean Saves the World,” a new Thursday comedy on NBC about a single gay dad of a teenage daughter. It’s also a show that will be lucky to save itself from cancellation if the ultra-low ratings are any guide.

“It’s just the struggle of the elephant in the room, which is, ‘How do you get viewers to NBC?,’” Hayes told The TV Page in an interview. “NBC programs great shows, it just doesn’t have the eyeballs CBS does.”

Actually, Hayes is only half-right. NBC is not having any trouble at all getting viewers some nights of the week. It does great on Sundays with NFL football and is also strong early in the week, when “The Voice” is on. In fact, NBC won the first four weeks of the fall TV season in the crucial adults ages 18 to 49 demographic, according to Nielsen.

FALL TV 2013: Watch the trailers

However, Thursday has been a train wreck for the network this season. And Hayes’ show is part of that underperforming lineup. So it would be possible to argue that “Sean Saves the World” is dragging down NBC, not the other way around.

Not surprisingly, Hayes doesn’t see it that way.

“Even if I wasn’t on the show, it’d be the funniest sitcom, to me, on the air right now,” he said. “I wouldn’t change anything right now, I think it’s all working.”

And as for the critics, who have mostly savaged the show? Hayes says the reviewers are just “scared” that his show is a traditional multi-camera sitcom and not a “hip” single-camera show such as “Modern Family” or “The Office.”

“They get nervous because they want their name on something new and hip and cool,” Hayes said of reviewers.

So, to recap: if “Sean Saves the World” has bad ratings, it’s because it’s on a network no one’s watching and because critics are too cowardly to write about how great the series is.

Got that, America? Something for you to think about as you settle down to watch “Grey’s Anatomy” every Thursday.

What do you think of Hayes and “Sean Saves the World”?

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