A Befuddling Game Show Slides, Despite ‘Synergies’

Before NBC introduced the game show “The Million Second Quiz,” there were so many corporate cross-promotions â€" part of a Comcast strategy it calls “symphony” â€" that the NBC executive Paul Telegdy said “the symphony has graduated into a philharmonic.”

But it turns out that something was out of tune. When the “Quiz” had its premiere last Monday, NBC scored a 1.7 Nielsen rating with viewers between the ages of 18 to 49, the demographic valued most by the network’s advertisers. Instead of growing from episode to episode, as NBC encouraged the show to do by scheduling it for 10 nearly consecutive nights, the show caved in; a 1.5 rating on Tuesday shrank to a 1.3 on Wednesday, a 1.1 on Thursday, a 0.8 on Friday, and a 0.7 on Saturday.

Total viewership fell to 3 million on Saturday from 6.5 million for Monday’s debut. NBC wanted a national event; what it got instead was a national shrug.

Were the ratings a repudiation of Comcast’s much-promoted “symphony” approach to creating new entertainment franchises? Untold numbers of people throughout the broadcaster’s parent company, NBCUniversal, which is wholly owned by Comcast, had spread the word about the game show through special segments on “Today” and other newscasts, elaborate graphics on the bottom of the screen of other shows, Twitter messages and other tactics. NBC and other media companies have been trying these sorts of synergies for decades, but since Stephen B. Burke became the chief executive of NBCUniversal in 2011, he has made it a special priority, calling it “Project Symphony.”

Questions about what went wrong with “Quiz” simmered as the prime-time show took a previously scheduled one-day break for football on Sunday, but the view among some observers was that the game play, not the promotional efforts that accompanied it, had missed the mark.

“It all comes down to content,” said Brad Adgate, who studies ratings patterns for Horizon Media.

Similarly, when asked if NBC’s synergies had failed, John Tinker, who tracks Comcast and other media conglomerates for the Maxim Group, said he’d suggest “a more traditional problem: it’s not a great show.”

“Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” this was not, despite NBC’s dreams that it would be. The show took a beating from television critics as soon as it started, mainly for having an overly complex format. Entertainment Weekly called the premise “a little horrifying.” The Hollywood Reporter called it “confusing and boring.”

In short, contestants were supposed to answer questions correctly so they could keep answering questions, beat other contestants and win more money â€" but asterisks and exceptions abounded, testing even the most patient viewers. Several people called it “the most confusing game show ever” in exasperated Twitter messages to Ryan Seacrest, the show’s host. Some critics pounced on Mr. Seacrest, whose omnipresence can easily be exploited for jokes. From NBC’s point of view, though, Mr. Seacrest was one of the show’s saviors.

For his part, Mr. Telegdy, the network’s president of alternative and late-night programming, said on Sunday, “We would absolutely do it all over again, in terms of the scale, ambition and the risk it represented.”

While he displayed disappointment about the ratings slump, he noted that “Quiz” had lifted NBC above its normal ratings levels for early September, which can only be a good thing for a beleaguered network that is about to introduce several new dramas and comedies for the fall.

The three million viewers on Saturday, on what is usually a dormant night for network television, represented NBC’s best performance in the time slot since a rerun of “It’s a Wonderful Life” last December. Still, given the high expectations, the New York magazine ratings buff Joe Adalian was moved in a Twitter post to rename the show “Million Dollar Mistake” after several consecutive days of declines.

NBC would not say just how costly “Quiz” really is, but consider this: More than 500 people have been employed by the production in New York City. Barring a stunning turnaround â€" the show will resume in prime time on Monday and wrap up on Thursday  â€" the network is unlikely to start citing it as a successful application of synergy. But it’s unlikely to back away from the “symphony” idea either.

“When we get all parts of the company working together, we’ve been astounded by how successful we can be,” Mr. Burke said at a Merrill Lynch conference. He didn’t mention the “Quiz,” but he said the NBC singing competition “The Voice” and the company’s wide-reaching coverage of the Summer Olympics had both benefited from cross-promotional efforts.

“Million Second Quiz” received a boost, too, if NBC’s research into awareness about the show is any indication. Awareness levels were abnormally high beforehand but, like an anticipated Hollywood blockbuster that goes bust, most of the people who heard about the show did not actually tune in. Many who did were not compelled to stay. And the show suffered an irritating setback on Night 1: so many viewers followed Mr. Seacrest’s instructions to play the game online that NBC’s servers were overwhelmed.

“By the end of the week, we had found our footing,” said one of several executives who, when granted anonymity to speak self-critically, suggested that “Quiz” might have benefited from a test episode ahead of time (something known in the TV industry as a pilot). If there is a silver lining for NBC, it might be on viewers’ smartphones: the network says 1.3 million people have installed and played a total of 23 million rounds on its “Quiz” app.

Mr. Adgate of Horizon Media said he would be watching again this week, though he doubted that the low ratings were a setback for NBC as a whole. “Not everything Comcast puts on symphony is going to work,” he said. “There are going to be misses along the way, and one week in, this appears to be one of them.”