Peacock’s The Resort flies to NBC to book a brand new audience

The Future. NBCUniversal is broadcasting the new Peacock show The Resort on NBC directly after America’s Got Talent. The hope is to lure viewers from AGT to sign up for Peacock to watch the rest of the show — that tried-and-true TV concept of a “lead-in.” If successful, it may prove that classic exhibition models like broadcast TV and long theatrical windows may be the best marketing tactic to convince audiences to watch something on streaming.

Migration programming
NBCUniversal hopes that broadcast can give its streaming content a lift.

• Per THR, NBC will air the pilot episode (and a “substantial teaser” of the second episode) of the new Peacock comedic thriller The Resort tonight at 9 pm PST.
• It will air after the live-results telecast of NBC’s biggest show for 16 years running, America’s Got Talent.

The Resort, which was created by Andy Siara (Palm Springs) and stars Cristin Milioti and William Jackson Harper, follows a couple on a 10th-anniversary trip, whose marriage is put to the test when they find themselves caught up in one of the Yucatán’s most bizarre unsolved mysteries that took place fifteen years prior.

Old platforms, new marketing
The broadcast experiment comes after NBCUniversal announced that Peacock hadn’t gained any subscribers in the US last quarter and is stuck at 13 million paid subscribers — not a great result for a relatively new service. But the company is bullish that The Resort has the goods to jumpstart that growth… as long as people get a chance to see it.

But NBCUniversal isn’t the only company trying something new to find fresh streaming subscribers. Netflix and hadn’t gained any subscribers in the US are looking into putting more of their original films in theaters for a longer period. At the same time, Paramount Global partnered with Walmart to Netflix in the retail giant’s membership program, Walmart+.