Mediaweek is reporting what many have discussed in our comments for quite some time, that the broadcast networks, for the most part, have abandoned scripted shows on Fridays.
As the ratings race heats up, most broadcasters are resigned to the fact that Fridays no longer may be in the race at all. With the exception of CBS, the networks are scheduling an increasing number of fallback nonscripted programs there, rather than aggressively developing new shows for the night.
Household usage on Fridays is the week’s second lowest. And most programmers said it’s tougher to justify spending the same amount of money for shows on Fridays as for shows in the middle of the week. Further discouraging broadcasters from programming the night is the notion that whatever viewers are available one Friday might not be available the next.
“People don’t make a point of being home on Friday,” said Jeff Bader, executive vp of ABC Entertainment. “So it’s harder to have appointment TV on that night.” With the audience seemingly in flux, Bader said ABC’s strategy is to “put something on that the viewer doesn’t have to watch every week.”
That may be a self fulfilling prophecy, but if CBS turns out to be relatively more successful than the rest their strategy of going fully scripted on Fridays may be vindicated.
Robert and I both believe that the CW has put Everybody Hates Chris and The Game on Friday's to die. This is how the CW's scheduler puts it:
his mandate at the CW has been to initiate flow for the network, starting on Monday. So Friday, he said, “was not as high a priority.”
Read the rest here.
If I remember correctly, the chart Bill and Robert put up last season with nightly HUT averages showed that while fewer people are watching TV on Friday, the difference isn’t nearly as bad as the broadcast nets make it out to be. I think this will be a self-fulfilling prophecy because if the nets give up and broadcast reality and repeats like they do on Saturday, the audience will simply move to cable.
The article (or at least the quotes here) leaves out that NBC is planning to air two scripted shows on Friday. Granted, neither has a great chance at success, but at least they haven’t given up altogether like Fox and ABC.
Holly, I’d say that it makes sense to program only “ad hoc” viewing options on Friday. Shows that you can watch one of every now and then and not have to follow start to finish. That seems logical in an attempt to get younger viewers who may or may not be out on a Friday night.
However, the fact that it logically makes sense (at least to me) in no way means that it’s going to be successful.
I agree that highly serialized shows probably won’t work as well on Friday, but with a few exceptions highly serialized shows aren’t doing well overall right now anyway. That doesn’t mean that Fridays have to be a wasteland of repeats and reality. The choice isn’t serialized shows you must watch each and every week in order to keep up or cheap reality. There is a middle ground between Lost and Supernanny. What about more episodic scripted shows like comedies and procedurals? CBS has success because of its procedurals. NBC is trying both a procedural (Life) and a serialized show (Crusoe). ABC could use a couple good procedurals in its lineup (just like CBS could use a couple non-procedurals), why not start with Fridays?
I’m not saying they should spend as much money on Fridays as they do on Thursdays or Sundays, but I don’t think they should just give up either.