NBC's Green Week Turns Some Viewers Blue

If while watching The Office this week you notice that NBC’s peacock logo is unusually monochromatic, don’t adjust your TV screen. From Nov. 4-11, the network is observing “Green Week,” and has therefore tweaked its emblem to make it appropriately verdant.

Green Week isn’t a celebration of envy or money, although television executives are surely concerned with making a profit and are occasionally jealous of their competition. Through Sunday, NBC Universal will be promoting environmental awareness by airing “green-themed programming,” episodes of its regular primetime shows with an eco-friendly twist. On last night’s installment of The Biggest Loser, for example, contestants were challenged to lose weight without the aid of electricity. Models on Deal or No Deal will be wearing dresses made of recycled army parachutes this Friday, and host Howie Mandel will even be joined by Kermit the Frog, the original spokes-Muppet of the green movement.

Scripted shows are in on the action as well: Bionic Woman Jamie Summers will be visiting an environmental convention in Paris tonight. Programs on NBC’s cable networks, including Bravo, SciFi, and USA are also participating in Green Week. Additionally, NBC has made special environmental editions of its “The More You Know” public service announcements, featuring stars like Tim Gunn and Law & Order: SVU’s Christopher Meloni.

The environmental fun doesn’t stop on the air, though. Each day of this week will have a “green-theme” in NBC’s corporate offices—Monday was “Paperless Day,” Tuesday was “Free Coffee Day” for employees who brought in their own mugs, and so on. Green Week itself is a part of the “Green Is Universal” initiative, an ongoing project dedicated to bringing “an environmental perspective to our networks, our platforms, our audiences, our communities ... in fact, to everything we do,” according to www.greenisuniversal.com.

Of course, NBC’s motives aren’t entirely altruistic. November is sweeps month, after all, and Green Week is partially a ratings stunt. It’s a risky one, too, since many viewers may not agree with NBC’s environmental agenda—on Monday night, a commentator called Cyherder responded to an environmentally conscious video posted on nbc.com by saying, “It is official! NBC has gone over the deep end. I guess the next step is for them to change their name to the DNC-BC. This way everyone will know that NBC supports a political party versus the truth. What is the truth? We do not know why the planet is warming. We do not even know if the planet is warming.”

What’s more worrisome still is that an entire week of all green, all the time may end up alienating viewers by grating on their nerves. Sure, a PSA showing Molly Sims saying, “Hey! It’s the sky ... don’t pollute me!” is cute the first time you watch it, but contrived “green” storylines (the Janitor on Scrubs is inspired to promote recycling after watching An Inconvenient Truth? Come on!) and an endless barrage of ads extolling the virtues of hybrid cars could get very irritating very quickly.

Luckily, at least one NBC program has a sense of humor about Green Week. On this Thursday’s 30 Rock, David Schwimmer will guest star as Greenzo, an “obnoxious NBC eco-mascot” whose preachiness gets out of control. Recent Nobel Prize winner Al Gore will also be on hand to lampoon his public persona—a promo shows him gazing into the distance, intoning, “A whale is in trouble! I have to go,” and rushing offscreen. Whether or not it’s easy being green, at least we know that “environmentally conscious” doesn’t have to mean “not funny.”