Monitor (TV)

Monitor promotional photo

Monitor was an NBC newsmagazine series in 1983. NBC News created this series as a platform to possibly equal the success of CBS's 60 Minutes.

Production was based in Washington, DC, with offices in the Tenley Circle area immediately east of NBC's Nebraska Avenue studios. Lloyd Dobyns, the shows host, appeared in a stark white modernistic set. In the absence of a theme composed especially for the show, producers opted to use classical music composed by Sergei Prokofiev, feeling that it added gravitas to the show - something that they wished would set them apart from ABC's lightweight 20/20.

In test audiences (including one in which future NBC anchor Sarah James was a college student), the show did not test well, but producers refused to change the format. The first episode featured an extended story on Bobby Czyz, a light heavyweight boxer from New Jersey. The show placed last in its time frame in national ratings in its debut.

Monitor failed to attract viewers. The Prokofiev score brought complaints and was compared to a funeral dirge.^[1]

Despite attempts to add anchors to broaden its appeal, the show was removed from the NBC schedule shortly after its premiere.

References

1. ^ Lloyd Dobyns correspondence