Thursday-related stories
Posted Oct 17th 2008 8:58PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Ratings, Reality-Free
Last night's second episode of ABC's new drama
Life on Mars, the American version of the British hit, took a
precipitous drop in the ratings. This is really bad news because
Life on Mars may be the best new show of the season, unless you're in love with
The Mentalist, which I am not, or maybe
The Eleventh Hour or
My Own Worst Enemy has tickled your fancy.
What's clear is that ABC is trying to build a solid Thursday with
Grey's Anatomy, Ugly Betty and
Life on Mars, but
Ugly Betty is off to a rocky start,
Grey's isn't the powerhouse it once was, and the pressure is on
Mars to keep
Grey's lead and improve on it.
The show got off to a good start in the premiere, but last night was off 25%. That's not good.
Continue reading Life on Mars's ratings falling to earth
Posted May 18th 2008 12:01PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Programming, Survivor, Ratings
Now that the
upfronts have been presented, it's time to start handicapping the ratings (although
Jeff Zucker doesn't think Nielsens matter that much anymore). Nevertheless, some are looking at next fall's schedule and predicting a big-time battle royale on Thursday night at 8 o'clock. Which reality show will emerge at the Nielsen number one -- CBS's
Survivor or Fox's
The Moment of Truth? According to
Hollywood Reporter,
Fox is taking aim at CBS. When asked at the upfront about positioning
The Moment of Truth -- and
Hell's Kitchen right behind it -- on that night was a strategic move, the executive was diplomatic at first. He said Fox isn't looking for a battle; they're doing their own thing. But then said of
Survivor, "Look, it's eroding. It's an older show. Its eventually going to give up and were trying to accelerate that."
Hmm, sounds like fighting words to me.
The Moment of Truth and
Hell's Kitchen are two of Fox's three premiere reality shows, behind only
American Idol in the ratings. Anyway you slice it, Thursday night is going to be a night to drive TV fans crazy. While Fox and CBS are leading with reality shows to start the night, ABC will offer Emmy winner and critic's darling,
Ugly Betty, NBC will serve up its Emmy winner(s) and critic's faves,
My Name Is Earl and
30 Rock, and the CW will bring back the venerable fan fave,
Smallville. And that's not even considering what the rest of the networks have planned.
Continue reading Will Survivor survive The Moment of Truth?
Posted Jan 10th 2008 10:11AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Programming, Chuck, WGA Strike
When NBC aired
Chuck's
Christmas-themed episode early in December, people were wondering if the show had any other pre-strike episodes left. The good news was that there were two episodes left to air, but NBC wanted to hold on to them until the strike was settled and air them with the remaining season's order of episodes.
Of course, it looks like that's a long way from happening. So NBC has shifted gears and decided to air both of the remaining episodes on a single night. But,
according to SCI FI Wire, they
won't air in the show's usual Monday night slot; they'll air on
Thursday, January 24, at 8 and 10 PM. In between the
Chuck episodes will be an episode of
Celebrity Apprentice. Well, that makes perfect sense, because the two shows have very similar fan bases. What's that? They have completely opposite fan bases? Who knew?
[via
Pop Candy]
Posted Apr 23rd 2007 2:37PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Programming
ABC is giving
Traveler some love. What is
Traveler? Well, I'd honestly be surprised if you remembered. It was on ABC's fall schedule, which was announced almost a year ago, and then kept getting bumped back to later dates. The series is about two college grads who end up getting framed for a terrorist act by another college buddy.
Bob has been looking forward to it for nearly a year now!
Earlier this month, ABC
announced Traveler would premiere on May 30th, but now the network has bumped up that premiere and given it a sweet time slot. The pilot episode of
Traveler will air on May 10th at 10 pm, following a new episode of
Grey's Anatomy. Then, the pilot will air again on the May 30th date.
I'm not sure if this is a good marketing idea. It seems odd to give a sneak preview of a show and then make people remember that they need to pick it up again during a holiday week (Memorial Day).
Posted Mar 29th 2007 7:12PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, ABC, Programming, American Idol
ABC is cowering in fear. Ok, all of the networks are (rightfully) cowering in fear from the ratings behemoth that is
American Idol. This time it's the new comedy,
Notes From the Underbelly, that is being shifted to stay out of Ryan Seacrest's path.
The comedy, about a couple expecting a baby and dodging crazy advice from friends and family, has been moved from Wednesdays at 9:30 pm to Thursdays at 10 pm after
Grey's Anatomy. The move is in response to
Idol's announcement this week that it will expand its results shows to one hour, starting April 11th. Now,
Notes From the Underbelly will premiere with back-to-back episodes on April 12th
instead of April 11th.
Giving a comedy the 10 pm time slot, even if its lead-in is
Grey's Anatomy, is a terrible idea. From the promos, it does not look like a prime time show. Let's face it: ten o'clock is the hour for sex and violence.
Underbelly looks like it belongs in the 8 o'clock hour (or not on television at all, if you
ask Joel).
Posted Dec 18th 2006 2:05PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Comedy Shows, Industry, Programming, OpEd, Festivus
... Two Programming Blunders.
It's been an interesting year for network TV, especially since the new fall season began. The set of pilots that the networks presented to audiences were at the same time the highest-quality and hardest-to-follow in years. That's why, in mid-season, we're now seeing that most of those pilots have either quickly disappeared or are hanging on for dear life.
Of course, this is all the networks' fault. The short-sightedness they used when programming their schedules this year has been mind-boggling, causing more viewers to scurry to other sources -- cable, YouTube, BitTorrent -- for their entertainment. Here are two of their dumbest moves:
Continue reading On the 2nd day of Festivus, TV gave to me
Posted Nov 30th 2006 12:08PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, ABC, Programming, OpEd, Men In Trees
I'm hoping that
Men in Trees finally gets the attention it deserves when it premieres in its new time slot tonight, following the number one show on television,
Grey's Anatomy. Up until now, ABC hasn't given much love to
Men in Trees. The network stuck the show on Fridays at nine with only reruns as a lead-in-- originally,
Ugly Betty was the lead-in but it was moved to Thursdays. The dramedy stars Anne Heche, a tough choice for a lead actor because of her strange past in the gossip magazines. But, the show not only survived on Friday nights, it did well enough for ABC to order an entire season.
Here's why I like
Men in Trees: it makes me happy. But, I wouldn't call it cheesy. It's about Marin Frist, a relationship coach whose own relationship falls to pieces as she's on a book tour in Alaska. She ends up staying in the small town of Elmo, where she's studying men and also learning more about herself. Anne Heche is surprisingly wonderful in the role of Marin, a character who is not flawless but learns from her mistakes. She's not a fumbling, ditzy blonde. And I adore the supporting characters, who are all very complex and not at all stereotypical of a small town.
Posted Nov 21st 2006 11:14AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, NBC, OpEd, Commercials, My Name Is Earl, Watercooler Talk, The Office, 30 Rock
So the first night of NBC's new "Must-See TV" lineup (except
Scrubs) turned out to be eventful for more than one reason: not only did we see a pivotal episode of
The Office, the cast of
My Name Is Earl in Claymation, and the first Thursday
30 Rock, we saw more self-referrential product placements in one night than at any time I could remember.
The first one was when we saw
The Office's Kevin going nuts over the
Staples MailMate shredder. "This shreds eveything," he says with a sense of childlike wonder. "It shreds CDs. It shreds credit cards..." The look on his face after he realized he shredded his own credit card is priceless, as was the salad he made with the shredder right before the credits. Oh, and by the way, Staples had an ad for the MailMate during the "supersized" episode.
Continue reading Thursday was product placement night on NBC
Posted Nov 7th 2006 1:03PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: FOX, Programming, American Idol, Music and Variety
FOX has announced its premiere dates for the next edition of
American Idol, and the network is once again steering clear of Thursday nights. There's speculation every year that FOX will put
American Idol on Thursdays, to knock down other big ratings getters like
Grey's Anatomy and
CSI. Once again, FOX understands that what it has is known as a good thing*. And, why mess with that?
Season six of
American Idol will debut with two-hour specials on Tuesday, January 16 and Wednesday, January 17th. The network will stick to Tuesdays and Wednesdays for Idol-- but will probably throw in an occasional Thursday show just to put a scare into the other networks.
*By saying "a good thing", I mean it makes FOX a lot of cash. We all know that FOX will mess with good things (ahem...
Firefly) that aren't mega-hits.
Posted Oct 12th 2006 3:59PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, NBC, Industry, Programming, ER, Ratings
Just when you think a show is dying, it comes to life.
ER is currently in its 13th season, and NBC's original plan was to interrupt the run of the show for three months in early 2007 and premiere the new drama
The Black Donnellys. But
ER had to go and be one of the top rated NBC shows (it's always in the top 20 now), so
now the plan is to keep ER on the air throughout the winter and spring.
I'll say one thing: I swore up and down, right here on this site, that I was through with
ER and wasn't going to watch it anymore. But I find myself pulled back into it after checking in to see what happened to Jerry (he's OK, just on another show for now) and Abby's baby (it's OK,
as Rich has reported). So I guess if the show can keep a jaded veteran
ER watcher like me interested after so many years, it must be doing something right.
Posted Oct 3rd 2006 12:41PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, CBS, CSI
Even before ABC put
Grey's Anatomy in the 9 pm Thursday time slot, the folks over at CBS knew that
CSI was in trouble. After seven years on the air, they had an inkling that ABC would be moving
Grey's. So, if this season of
CSI seems unusual so far... that's because it is. CBS challenged the producers and writers to get creative with their storylines and try something unusual. Even though they haven't taken our advice and
killed off Nick Stokes, they are breaking from the procedural formula that propelled them to become the number one show on television. So far this season, the crimes have stretched into two episodes. And the storyline with the murderer who creates miniature replicas of the crime scene will last through the middle of the season.
What do you think of
CSI so far this season? Is different good or bad?
Posted Sep 23rd 2006 10:42AM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, ABC, CBS, Industry, CSI, Grey's Anatomy
What happens when the season premieres of
CSI and
Grey's Anatomy go head-to-head? Duh. I can't understand why
the press is having such a fit over the fact that
Grey's Anatomy had higher ratings than
CSI on Thursday night. Of course it did.
Grey's Anatomy ended last season with a cliffhanger.
Grey's is hot and buzzworthy, while
CSI is old and predictable.
Grey's Anatomy had 25.4 million viewers for its season premiere, while
CSI had 22.6 million. Congrats to the folks at
Grey's Anatomy for toppling the highest-rated show on television in their first match-up!
What did you watch at 9 pm on Thursday?
Posted May 8th 2006 9:34AM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, NBC, Programming, ER
ER has been on Thursday nights on NBC for as long as I can remember. OK, actually it's only been in the 10 pm timeslot since 1994. And I haven't watched it since 1996 (I couldn't handle breaking down into a sobbing mess each week). But, still. It's an institution on Thursday nights. It's a throwback to the good ol' days when NBC was on top.
Well, those days are over. Now, NBC is
reportedly considering moving it to a different night. Apparently, NBC thinks the move could boost the network's ratings during late primetime on Tuesdays or Wednesdays by pairing
ER up with
Law & Order or
SVU. It looks like
ER's replacement will most likely be the new Aaron Sorkin/Thomas Schlamme series,
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. If that happens, I will definitely be returning to NBC at 10 pm on Thursdays (hey, I'm already there for
Earl and
The Office anyway).
Posted Jan 7th 2006 11:37AM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Comedy Shows, ABC, NBC, CBS, Programming, CSI, Will & Grace, Without A Trace, My Name Is Earl
NBC can't exactly claim victory for its first attempt at re-launching Must See TV Thursday nights. Not
only did
CSI kick the butts of
Earl and
The Office, but NBC also had fewer viewers than
ABC's launch of
Dancing with the Stars. The ratings hold good and bad news for NBC. The comedy bloc, which
included
Will & Grace,
Four Kings,
My Name is Earl, and
The Office, averaged
9.2 million viewers, which is about half of what ABC and CBS each got. NBC not only trailed way behind the other
networks in ratings, it also trailed in the coveted 18-49 age group.
Earl's ratings weren't as high as they
had been when it aired on Tuesday nights, but
The Office hit a season high.
I guess I'm part of the
minority. I checked out
Four Kings and I gave up
CSI in favor of
Earl and
The
Office.
CSI is getting boring, anyway. What do you choose on Thursday nights?
Posted Dec 20th 2005 5:54PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, NBC, Talent, OpEd
Seth Green just did some press for
Four Kings,
which premieres on Thursday, January 5th. In this
AOL interview, he
talks up the show a bit, saying all four guys have good chemistry and he's having fun. But, he's also realistic about
the uncertainty with new sitcoms. He's been through enough to understand that you never know if it's going to be the
next
Cheers or the next bomb. Seth also talks briefly about
Buffy alumni, and all of his other
projects including
Robot Chicken and
Family Guy. It's funny, because Seth's calm, "whatever,
dude" demeanor definitely comes across in the interview.
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