In the mid-late 1970s, NBC was in dire straits. It was struggling to find a new hit, as big shows like Hello, Larry and Supertrain, as well as every new series that premiered during the 1975-76 season, flopped spectacularly. Its expensive TV movies, miniseries and specials were nothing more than wastes of money, as they failed to attract new audiences. ABC and CBS were creaming it in the ratings. It was losing longtime affiliates in key markets like Atlanta, the Twin Cities, and San Diego. And to top it all off, the American boycott of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow meant that NBC had wasted $87 million on the rights to the Games. The acronym NBC was said to stand for Nothing But Crap, Nobody's Watching Network (its slogan at the time was America's Watching Network), and Nobody Cares. Of course, in 1981, NBC was rescued by the team of Grant Tinker as network president and Brandon Tartikoff as chief of programming, bringing us such classics as The A-Team, The Cosby Show, and Miami Vice.
But what if they couldn't save the network? What if, for example, Tartikoff stayed at ABC, or died young (he had battled Hodgkin's Disease three times during his adult life)? Can NBC stay afloat without them, and if not, then how long does it have before it folds? How would the evolution of television (Fox, the WB, UPN, cable, various shows) be affected by this change?
Feel free to discuss.