Three - Victory's Debut Season: Sponsorship (or Not?), Promotion, Scheduling, and Awards

Summary

NBC's initial 1952–53 Victory run was on a sustaining basis, the radio-TV industry's longstanding term for broadcasts lacking commercial sponsorship. Contrary to Victory lore, however, this wasn't NBC's original intent, Richard Rodgers's mandate, or the US Navy's firm policy. NBC devoted more than a year to finding a series sponsor, with its effort continuing until just weeks before Victory's October 1952 debut. Not until NBC reluctantly abandoned its search did it then decide to promote this late decision as a public-interest gesture, which paid off in praise from opinion-making columnists. Decades later, Rodgers claimed an early and decisive role in the matter while also conflating re-run syndication profits with the issue of first-run sponsorship:

When I told Salomon [in September 1951] that I’d undertake the assignment, I made one stipulation. Since the United States government was involved, I did not think Victory at Sea should be a moneymaking project, at least not until the initial series had appeared. [Afterward] the network could make whatever syndication arrangements it wished, and I would be only too happy to share in the proceeds. NBC agreed… . [Victory] was successfully launched late in the fall of 1952… . NBC was immediately inundated with offers of commercial sponsorship. True to our agreement, however, they waited until the twenty-six weeks were over before entering into any syndication arrangements.

NBC's papers show this account to be fanciful. By mid-1951 the network was already searching for a sponsor, hoping to recover its investment. There was no deluge of interest following Victory's early success, and syndication advertising and licensing also began well before 1952–53's debut season fin-ished. Rodgers had no documented involvement with these matters.

Early in 1951 NBC had signed the Navy's agreement of understanding, which did initially preclude first-run sponsorship. But even then the corporation questioned the Navy's provision:

I cannot understand why NBC must televise these series as a sustaining feature. Certainly the size of our expenditure should make it possible for us to re-coup, at least in part, some of those costs. Believe me, MGM did not lose financially when Fighting Lady [see EP12] was made at that lot by John Ford.

NBC asked the Navy to reconsider, as Sylvester “Pat” Weaver was already seeking underwriting from TV manufacturer RCA, NBC's parent corporation.