Showcasing dogs on Turkey Day

NBC is going to the dogs on Thanksgiving Day. While CBS and Fox will be telecasting traditional football games from Detroit and Dallas, the peacock network is offering a different type of sporting event -- a pedigree dog show.

“It’s going to be a warm, fuzzy Thanksgiving,” says Mitch Metcalf, NBC Entertainment’s senior vice president for scheduling.

“The National Dog Show Presented by Purina,” which airs directly after the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, was taped Nov. 16 in Philadelphia. Hosted by the Kennel Club of Philadelphia, which presented its first dog show in 1879, the “National Dog Show” features 2,000 of the nation’s top canines vying for group and best in show.

“I think we in the dog show world are fortunate that NBC lost football,” says David Frei, the expert analyst for the two-hour special. “Now we get our chance. This is fabulous family programming when the kids are home and the family is home. There are probably some people in the world who don’t need to watch football.”

Pedigree dog shows have proven to be very popular on cable television. USA does well every year with its two-day, six-hour telecast of the prestigious Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. ESPN and Animal Planet have also scored high ratings with dog shows.

The National Dog Show -- the first broadcast-network dog show -- features a lot of the top pooches representing 150 breeds who have competed at Westminster. “It is the same format for a confirmation show, but what makes it a little different, and it adds to the prestige of the event, is it is an on-site bench show,” says Frei referring to a particular kind of competition that is now used by only about six shows in the country. Let him explain:

“Years ago when dog shows first started, they were all bench shows. That meant a dog had to be in a certain area, literally on a bench, so when the public came through the doors they knew they could go to bench No. 14B and find the row of Afghan hounds. They could see the dogs up close. It is a great educational process.”

At most shows these days, Frei says, a handler and his dog can arrive at the venue just prior to competition and then leave.

Metcalf says that NBC had long wanted to bring dog programming to broadcast television. “When we started to talk with the Kennel Club, immediately there was advertising interest because it is just a natural fit,” he says.

“The thing that really makes this work is the day we are going to do this. If we did it on a normal Saturday or Sunday afternoon in the sports time period, it would be another one-time-only sports show. But it fits so perfectly after Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. It has great potential to become a holiday tradition for us.”

NBC also enlisted Paul Carson and his sports promotion company, Carson International, to produce the event. Carson does several canine events per year including the “Incredible Dog Challenge,” on TBS.

“There are over 1,500 dog shows per year,” Carson says. “But to do them at the quality of a national show is a different thing. Nobody has done that in the past, so basically that was one of our areas of expertise.”

Carson says he is not surprised that NBC would throw its leash into the dog show ring. “Out of all the events I have ever been involved with, I never had the response and the success we have enjoyed with the ‘Incredible Dog Challenge.’ People love dogs and there is a bond that people share, and really when they see dogs you are evoking that bond.”

John O’Hurley, who played the clueless J. Peterman on “Seinfeld,” will host the dog show and provide color commentary.

“He is going to liven up the broadcast,” says Metcalf. “He’s not going to be making fun of the event or the participants, but he is going to provide a lot of comedy and an irreverent look at it.”

Frei says he always wanted to make it clear during a show that these dogs have a normal life outside the ring. “The old, tired line I use all the time is that these are real dogs that go home and sleep on the couches and steal food off the counters and probably eventually drink out of the toilet once in a while.”

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When and where

“The National Dog Show Presented by Purina” will be shown at noon Thursday on NBC.