Hoo boy! You fans of the NBC historical drama Crusoe are not going to like this news. Not at all. It will be so distressful that you're going to get up, board a ship, purposefully get shipwrecked, and live your life on a deserted island. That, or you'll just toss out your TVs in disgust and begin, dare I say it, reading or talking to your loved ones.
Ready? Here it is...NBC is moving Crusoe to Saturdays. You read right; the show is moving to the Dead Zone of primetime television. Why, do you tearfully ask, are they moving this show to a night that hasn't featured original programming in years? Well, it's to move Lipstick Jungle up one hour on Friday night in order to shore the program up. And, man, does it need shoring up. Last Friday, the show managed to eek out a 2.2 rating in its current 10 PM slot.
So, here's how it's going to break down: Lipstick will move into the 9 pm slot on December 5th, sandwiched between Deal or No Deal and Dateline. The original remaining episodes will air on December 12th, January 2nd and January 9th. After that, who knows what will happen. In the meantime, Crusoe will seep down into the Saturday, 8 pm slot starting on December 6th. Right now, the original programming goes up to December 13th. After that...
When you think about it, Crusoe is good Saturday night viewing. it has action, adventure, romance, and seems to be family-friendly enough. The problem is there is nothing else on the big three networks to support that new programming. So, from the current standpoint, it's looking like the network is putting this show out to pasture. Or, maybe the network will take the drastic move of promoting the show, which will raise the ratings. That, in turn, will give merit to adding additional non-reality programming to the schedules and, eventually, resurrecting the Saturday night viewing that was a staple of television for decades. Nah, what was I thinking!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-24-2008 @ 4:43PM
Jimmy said...
I've always been of the opinion the networks screwed themselves over by giving up on Saturday. Granted, Saturday will never again be the night that gave us All in the Family, MASH, Mary Tyler Moore, Golden Girls, and Bob Newhart, but that doesn't mean quality, original programming can't stake a claim to that night. The problem is, Crusoe is not quality programming -- it's cheaply made, poorly acted crap. Networks also have to realize they are never going to draw 20 million people to a Saturday night and create quality programming with that expectation in mind. Viewers on Saturday are going to skew older and more family-oriented; create programs accordingly. But again, the networks will never do that because advetisers don't like those kinds of viewers. Now the cable networks have taken over on Saturdays and are drawing equal to better viewers than the networks.
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11-24-2008 @ 4:55PM
0megapart!cle said...
No show gets 20 million viewers nowadays (maybe Obama).
11-24-2008 @ 5:23PM
Edward said...
What were the ratings for Crusoe so far? Wasn't this supposed to follow the British formula where it ends after 13 or so episodes?
11-24-2008 @ 5:43PM
JeansLady said...
I love this show. I got so tired of starting to watch new shows and then have them cancelled after 2 or 3 weeks that I swore off starting to watch new shows this season. I made an exception with Crusoe. I read about it and decided to take a chance on it. It's really terrific and I went into it knowing that it might not be back after the first 13 eps. If I'm not home on Saturday nights, I'll definitely record it for viewing on Sunday. Seems like the past two seasons, every new show I like was axed; the writer's strike didn't help matters any, I know. I often feel like the networks are as out of touch with what people like to watch - reminds me of politicians in Washington who don't really know what's happening in mainstream America.
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11-24-2008 @ 6:10PM
chadwick said...
Lipstick Jungle? Talk about a pile of crap. Crusoe is pretty cool. I already know its more of a mini series but come on. It's entertaining and its on a tropical Island. Geez man Dipstick Fungle is another worthless program everyone is simply tired of seeing copied year in and year out.
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11-25-2008 @ 10:40AM
ChocolatFrog said...
well if they want to make Saturday night worth it they should make 2 hours episodes, that way it will replace movie night.
dang thats a very good idea, I hope someone is reading this.
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11-26-2008 @ 11:28AM
Europa said...
"No show gets 20 million viewers nowadays (maybe Obama)."
And AI (33-35 million I think) but unfortunately that's a reality show.
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