In today’s overnight report for Friday night I pondered what will happen in the fall for CW Friday nights as they let Friday Night Smackdown! get away to MyNetTV. Will the CW take its worst performing shows and stick them in the vast Friday night wasteland? Or will it stick the worst performers on Thursday, when there is more competition and try to actually eke out some sort of Friday night success? Especially with CW abandoning programming on Sunday nights and only programming primetime Mon-Fri, it becomes easier to concentrate the worst performing shows on one night.
I believe the more likely scenario is sticking the worst performers in the Friday night wasteland. Why? Well, even though Friday night has less competition, I think no matter what happens the perception is that advertising pays better on Thursdays even when the shows are regularly drawing under three million.
Weekend movies are generally released on Fridays and the studios want to get ahead of the game by promoting them right before the weekend starts. The movie studios don’t want you home on Friday nights watching your favorite programs on TV or on DVR. They want you at the movie theaters!
I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but if I was I would wonder if the movie studios aren’t subsidizing the TV networks (especially when they’re both owned by the same company) so that they deliberately won’t program high quality programming for Friday or Saturday nights. I think such a theory is a stretch, but when you consider the programming that’s actually on Friday and Saturday nights exactly just how much of a stretch is hard to figure. But either way we’ll find out the C-dub’s plans next week.
May 10th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
The WB used to do well with comedies – not spectacular, but averaging around 3.5 to 4 million some weeks when the network overall was averaging 5. The centerpiece was Reba, of course, which the CW dumped last season. Whoops! Reba would frequently draw over 5 million.
May 10th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
I can see The Game being renewed just for the sole fact it is their only comedy now that is still “on the bubble” both Girlfriends and Aliens In America have been axed and Everybody Hates Chris is their only comedy to continue to the 08-09 season. The CW will only renew The Game so they can pair it up with Everybody Hates Chris and those two shows may move to Friday so one of their new shows can be on Monday.
May 10th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
The two comedies from The WB that were successful prior to The CW were What I Like About You and Reba.
I still don't know why they just didn't give Reba a regular season last year. Stupid if you ask me. The show could have continued for one more year at least.
May 11th, 2008 at 8:42 am
The thing is, it doesn't matter what CW does with Fridays or any other day of the week. It is never going to see WB or even UPN numbers again. Even if they did somehow get an amazing pilot that has mass appeal, they've proven that they just don't know how to market the network so people will watch it. They are just a waste of space at this point.
May 11th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
I very much agree with Julia on this topic.
In any case, I don't care what they put in the Friday slot as long as it isn't Supernatural. Way too many shows have dropped ratings once moved to a Friday slot…
Hey, since Gossip Girl is such a “hit”, maybe Dawn should throw it on Fridays, cause it's like bound to like bring in ratings cause it's totally like a really good show.
May 12th, 2008 at 9:45 am
“Gossip Girl” is a hit in The CW's target demo. Households don't count anymore.
But I guess your misogynistic hatred of Dawn Ostroff and all other women overrides common sense here.