30 Rock
File:30rocklogo.jpg
Created by	Tina Fey
Starring	Tina Fey Tracy Morgan Jane Krakowski Jack McBrayer Scott Adsit Judah Friedlander Alec Baldwin
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	12 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Lorne Michaels Tina Fey Joann Alfano Marci Klein David Miner
Camera setup	Single-camera setup
Running time	30 minutes (with commercials)
Original release
Network	File:Large NBC logo.pngNBC
Release	October 11, 2006 – present

30 Rock is an American situation comedy that debuted on October 11, 2006. It airs Thursdays at 9:30pm ET on NBC in the United States, Sundays at 8:30pm ET on CTV in Canada, and Wednesdays at various times on Sony Entertainment Television in a half-dozen Latin American countries.^[1]

The show was created by former Saturday Night Live (SNL) performer and head writer Tina Fey, who also stars in the show.

The show is a workplace comedy set in New York City's 30 Rockefeller Plaza; it follows the cast and crew of an SNL-like show-within-a-show called TGS.

Fey portrays Liz Lemon, the head writer of TGS and the show's protagonist. Alec Baldwin plays Jack Donaghy, who as the series begins is a newly-hired executive (GE's Vice President in charge of East Coast and Microwave Oven programming); he "interferes with her show, and bullies Lemon into convincing Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan), a wild and unpredictable movie star, to join the cast."^[2] Jane Krakowski plays Jenna Maroney, previously the star of The Girlie Show, but now overshadowed on the renamed TGS with Tracy Jordan. Also in the cast are Jack McBrayer and Scott Adsit (two Chicago improv veterans), and Judah Friedlander.

The show's title comes from a nickname for 30 Rockefeller Plaza, also known as the GE Building. It is used as the headquarters of NBC's New York City studios, including Studio 8H, home to Saturday Night Live.

30 Rock is filmed primarily at Silvercup Studios in Long Island City, Queens, New York,^[3] It is one of two shows on the 2006–07 NBC lineup that revolves around the off-camera happenings on a sketch comedy series, the other being Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.^[4]

• Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) — The protagonist of the show. Liz is the head writer of The Girlie Show. Writing for a comedy show is her dream, but she finds her dream interrupted when Jack Donaghy is made to be the new network president.
• Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) — The new Vice President of East Coast Television and Microwave Oven Programming at the network. Arrogant and sometimes foolish, he frequently tells Liz that he does not find her attractive and often gets into conflicts with her. He convinces Liz to hire Tracy as the new star of the show.
• Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan) — An unpredictable African American film actor who is hired to be the star of The Girlie Show. Tracy is hired after Jack Donaghy convinces Liz to hire him. Tracy is foul-mouthed and tries to maintain a crazy image in the public eye. His character also makes frequent references to Star Wars characters. Since he was hired to the show, the show was renamed (much to Liz's chagrin) TGS with Tracy Jordan.
• Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski) — The female lead of The Girlie Show. She is conceited and frequently lies about her age. One of her characters on the show is "Pam, the Overly-Confident Morbidly Obese Woman", for which she must wear a fat suit.
• Kenneth Potsdown (Jack McBrayer) — A young, Southern, dense page at the studio where the show is filmed who is very enthusiastic about his job.
• Pete Hornberger (Scott Adsit) - Liz's trusted producer who was originally fired from the show by Jack Donaghy when he became president of the network. However, Liz convinced Jack to hire him back.
• Frank Rossitano (Judah Friedlander) - A sarcastic and quick-witted writer for the show. Always wears a trucker hat with a short saying on the front in big capital letters.

• James "Toofer" Spurlock (Keith Powell) — An African American writer with an aversion to the stereotypical aspects of black culture embodied by Tracy. According to Liz, Toofer is "afraid of black people." According to Jack, his nickname is 'Toofer' because "with him you get a two-for-one; he's a black guy and a Harvard guy."
• Josh Girard (Lonny Ross) - The final one of the three main actors on TGS (along with Tracy and Jenna). He performs impressions on the show. His parents apparently raised him as a girl for ten years.
• Cerie (Katrina Bowden) — Liz's young and attractive assistant. She is dim-witted and dresses very innapropriately at times.
• Dennis Duffy (Dean Winters) - Liz's on-again-off-again boyfriend who is the last remaining beeper salesman in New York City. Although Liz does not enjoy dating him, she cannot seem to break up with him despite Jack's encouragement to do so. Liz would finally dump Dennis upon learning that he is a sexual predator after she sees him on Dateline NBC being caught on camera trying to meet a teenage girl he chat with online in one of their hidden camera investigations.
• Dr. Leo Spaceman (pronounced "spa-cheh-man") (Chris Parnell) - Tracy's incompetent and unethical doctor who treats him with wildly experimental methods. He also dabbles in dentistry and specializes in fertility, meth addiction, and child psychology.
• Greta Johansen (Rachel Dratch) - A cat wrangler who works on the show, training animals that are needed in sketches. She also seems to have an obsession with Liz.

30 Rock's executive producers are Tina Fey, Joann Alfano, Marci Klein, David Miner, and Lorne Michaels. The show's co-executive producers are Robert Carlock, Brett Baer, Dave Finkel, Jack Burditt, and John Riggi. The supervising producer is Adam Bernstein. Jeff Richmond and Jerry Kupfer are the show's producers. Irene Burns, Matt Hubbard, and Margo Myers serve as co-producers.

The writing staff for the first season consists of Brett Baer, Jack Burditt, Kay Cannon, Robert Carlock, Tina Fey, Dave Finkel, Daisy Gardner, Donald Glover, Matt Hubbard, and John Riggi.

• Stephanie March appeared in the episode "Blind Date".
• Ghostface Killah appeared in the episode "Jack-tor".
• Dean Winters appeared in the episodes "Jack Meets Dennis", "Tracy Does Conan", "The Break Up", and "The C Word".
• Conan O'Brien appeared in the episode "Tracy Does Conan".
• Chris Parnell appeared in the episodes "Tracy Does Conan", and "The Rural Juror".
• Whoopi Goldberg appeared in the episode "The Rural Juror".
• Peter Hermann appeared in the episode "The Head and the Hair".
• John McEnroe appeared in the episode "The Head and the Hair".

The show underwent several changes during the months leading up to and following its debut.

A May 2006 press release mentioned that sketches from The Girlie Show would be made available in their entirety on NBC's broadband website, DotComedy.com.^[5] This aspect of the series was abandoned prior to its debut.

Originally, Rachel Dratch, Fey's longtime comedy partner and fellow SNL alumna, was to portray Jenna, whose surname was DeCarlo at that time. Dratch played the role in the show's original pilot, but in August 2006, Krakowski was announced as Dratch's replacement, with Dratch said to remain involved in the show, playing various characters.^[6] Fey attributed the need for the change to the role itself, one Fey called a "straight-ahead acting part" better suited for Krakowski; Fey said she and Dratch "were both very excited about this new direction. [Dratch is] so delightful when she's deep in character and she's going to be playing a range of different characters."^[7] "I think it's something that'll help the show be unique. And I think it brings a little sketch sensibility into a show where you're not going to see sketches."^[8] An interview with Dratch revealed that she'll appear in at least six episodes, and confirmed the reason for the change:

I think the big thing was—at least what they told me—that at first they wanted to have more comedy sketches in the show. Then they decided they weren’t going to focus on the sketches, so they needed more of a sitcom actress, as opposed to a character actress....That’s the party line, at least—it’s what I can tell my parents!^[9]

The changes prior to the debut did not help the show's early ratings. The show's pilot episode attracted 8.13 million viewers, third in its time slot and 58th for the week.^[10] The ratings for "The Aftermath" (the second episode) were down 21 percent^[11].

Although the second episode's ratings were revealed on the same day that NBC Universal announced plans to replace expensive scripted shows in the 8–9pm time slot with reality series and game shows^[12], NBC demonstrated an apparent confidence in the series a week later, announcing a new time slot for the show (Thursdays at 9:30pm ET) beginning in mid-November^[2]. The move helps re-establish a two-hour block of comedies on an evening NBC once promoted as Must See TV.

The third episode attracted 6.01 million viewers, making it 73rd in Nielsen's prime-time television in the U.S.^[13] As November sweeps began, the show's fourth episode attracted 4.61 million viewers in its fourth week, making it 85th in Nielsen's prime-time television rankings.^[14]

CTV, which had broadcast the first four or five episodes in Canada^[15], dropped the show effective November 30, after a brief run during which it never entered the BBM Nielsen top 30.^[16] CTV has since re-added the show to its lineup on Sundays at 8:30pm ET.

NBC waited until December 1 to commit to a full season of the show, announcing the commitment the day after the show followed Scrubs for the first time. The November 30 episode drew 6.6 million viewers, nearly a million more than the previously televised episode and only 1.5 million fewer viewers that the show's pilot.^[17] The increase in viewership occurred in spite of the show's new time slot, opposite the second halves of Grey's Anatomy and a repeat of CSI, two of the three most highly-rated scripted series of November sweeps in 2006.^[18] The December 7th episode continued its rise, drawing 6.8 million viewers and attracting its highest 18–49 demographic, 3.2.

On January 17th, NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly announced that he expects 30 Rock "to return next season"^[19]; the next day's episode, competing against new episodes of CSI ("Sweet Jane") and Grey's Anatomy ("Six Days, Part 2"), attracted 5.04 million viewers, the fewest since the beginning of 2006's November sweeps, and 80th in Nielsen rankings.^[20].

In their fall preview of new shows, TV Guide named 30 Rock the best new comedy.^{[citation needed]} After five episodes, Tom Shales of The Washington Post noted the series has "consistently and considerably improved since its premiere"; he called it "refreshingly bright, sweet and, lest one forget, funny." He described Baldwin's performance as "rare and rich" and a "crazy joy to watch"; he declared McBrayer "the show's brightest discovery"^[21], backing up his characterization of McBrayer with a quote from executive producer Lorne Michaels: "We're very high on [McBrayer]. He's obviously the breakout performer on the series. We like him, the network likes him, viewers like him, everybody likes him."

On December 22, 2006, the Wall St. Journal cited 30 Rock as the one comedy, that along with 2 dramas, was evidence that "this year's lineup yields the strongest signs yet that some sort of life force is returning to network television after years of absence", adding that "the show grows sharper weekly, more hilariously assured in its wild satiric reach," calling it a "wildly funny enterprise"

In their 2006 year end issue, Entertainment Weekly listed 30 Rock fourth on their 10 best "Series of the Year" list ^[22] with similar year end "best of" 2006 lists in the NY Daily News ^[23] LA Weekly ^[24]NY Times ^[25] and the Associated Press saying NBC's "Thursday night comedy block—made up of "My Name Is Earl," "The Office," "Scrubs" and "30 Rock"—is consistently the best night of prime time viewing for any network." ^[26]

In the following summary, "Rating" is the estimated percentage of all televisions tuned to the show, and "Share" is the percentage of all televisions in use that are tuned in.

Unless otherwise cited, the overnight rating and share information comes from Zap2It^[27] The following week, the numbers are updated with the final Nielsen numbers from TVWeek.com.^[28] Additional ratings information, including the 18–49 rating, comes from BroadcastingCable.^[29] Viewer numbers and rank numbers come from Google groups.^[30]

On December 29, 2006, Nielsen Media Research reported the results of having, for the first time, monitored viewers who use a digital video recorder to pre-record shows for later viewing. According to the Nielsen numbers, 30 Rock had the 5th largest increase (viewers who use a DVR to record the show and then watch it within a week of its initial airing). According to Nielsen, 30 Rock adds nearly 7.5% to its total audience every week as a result of these "live plus seven" viewers.^[31]

30 Rock is broadcast on the following stations around the world.

Country	TV Network(s)	Series Premiere	Weekly Schedule
Canada	CTV	October 10, 2006	Sundays 5:30pm ET (originally Tuesdays at 7:30pm, moved to weekend daytime hours due to primetime schedule congestion)
United States	NBC	October 11, 2006	Thursdays 9:30pm ET (first four episodes aired Wednesdays at 8:00pm)[32]
Australia	Channel Seven	2007[33]
Argentina	Sony Entertainment Television	November 15, 2006	Wednesdays 9:30pm[34]
Brazil			Wednesdays 8:30pm[34]
Chile			Wednesdays 9:30pm[34]
Colombia			Wednesdays 7:30pm[34]
Mexico			Wednesdays 8:30pm [34]
Peru			Wednesdays 7:30pm[34]
Venezuela			Wednesdays 8:30pm[34]

• Jeff Richmond, Fey's husband, composes all of the show's music and also serves as a producer on the show. He also appears in some episodes as the show-within-the-show's piano player.
• Thus far, the show has featured three different guest stars who were regular or recurring cast members of Law & Order: SVU (Stephanie March, Dean Winters, and Peter Hermann) with three regulars and two guest stars who were cast members on Saturday Night Live (Tina Fey, Tracy Morgan, Rachel Dratch, Chris Parnell, and Will Forte).
• The show's name is similar to "3rd Rock," the commonly used short title for 3rd Rock from the Sun. At the 64th Golden Globe Awards, Tim Allen mispronounced the show's name as "3rd Rock" when mentioning Alec Baldwin had been nominated for the Best Actor in a Television Comedy or Musical Award.^[35]

• 30 Rock at the TV IV
• 30 Rock at TV Guide
• Online episode of 30 Rock from NBC
• Opening Titles on YouTube