Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Overnight TV Ratings -- America Sees The (Friday Night) Light(s)

As I hoped, NBC's lazy experiment of tossing "Friday Night Lights" onto Monday at 10 p.m. -- opposite the record-setting popularity of Monday Night Football on ESPN -- was a very modest success. You can't just throw a serialized drama onto another night and hope it sticks. Nonetheless, "Friday Night Lights" did slightly better than "Studio 60" last week (even adjusting for slightly higher ratings from "Heroes"). Of course, it faced repeats on CBS, but still: better is better. NBC needs to immediately pull the show, hold it for spring and then do the obvious: relaunch "Friday Night Lights" as a spring-only drama (a la "24") on FRIDAY NIGHT after high school football season is over. Then, the fans of football who would normally be at a game can watch the show. How hard is that to see? Anyone watch it for the first time. Here are the rest of the ratings, per MediaWeek's Marc Berman:

8 p.m.
1. Deal Or No Deal (NBC) -- 16.84 million viewers
2. Prison Break (FOX) -- 8.96 mil
3. How I Met Your Mother repeat (CBS) -- 8.46 mil/The Class re (CBS) -- 7.16 mil
4. Wife Swap rerun(ABC) -- 6.49 mil
5. Everybody Hates Chris (CW) -- 3.56 mil/All Of Us (CW) -- 3.08 mil

9 p.m.
1. Heroes (NBC) -- 14.74 million
2. Two and a Half Men rerun(CBS) -- 13.77 mil/Old Christine re (CBS) -- 10.77
3. The Bachelor: Rome (ABC) -- 8.23 mil
4. Justice (FOX) -- 6.5 mil
5. Girlfriends (CW) -- 3.12 mil/The Game (CW) -- 2.84 mil

10 p.m.
1. CSI: Miami rerun (CBS) -- 14.2 mil
2. Friday Night Lights (NBC) -- 8.29 million
3. What About Brian (ABC) -- 6.44 mil

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is sad. Justice is actually a really good show. FOX has to find a good time slot for it though. Like tuesday at 8. Standoff (which is now on tuesdays at 8) is not actually that good. Justice and Standoff should just switch time slot.

Michael in New York said...

Standoff is dead. They won't waste it on Mondays at 9 after Prison Break. Tuesday at 8 is a tough timeslot with Dancing W The Stars, NCIS (a big hit among old people) and Gilmore Girls (not to mention Idol in January). Wed of Fri might be better options. At least FOX is supportive of Justice. They moved it to a plum slot, and gave it a lot of promotion during the World Series. So they share your enthusiasm. Do you think Kerr Smith is a weak link on the show?

priv8pete said...

I watched for the first time. It was good and I'd probably watch it regularly if it was in a good time slot for me. However, I'm out every Friday night so while it would be a logical fit, I still wouldn't watch it. Monday night at 10 is good for me since I just kept watching after Heroes was over instead of going to bed.

Michael in New York said...

Timeslot? How 20th century of you, Pete. Doesn't your slingbox allow you to record the show and watch it whenever you want? Plus, you can always watch it on a computer at work during the week at nbc.com when you should be doing work for the government/city/college.