The question now is will Southland it get to air all episodes on Friday nights, or wind up burned off on Saturdays next summer?
NBC is pushing the sophomore season premiere date for "Southland" back a month.
The John Wells cop drama will now bow on Friday, Oct. 23, instead of its original Sept. 25 air date.
Insiders said the Peacock hopes to use the extra month to further promote the show, which they worried was getting lost in the fall marketing shuffle. New premiere date will move "Southland" away from the noisy launches of CBS' "Medium" and Fox's "Dollhouse," both of which were set to preem against "Southland" on Sept. 25.
Huh? Getting lost in the fall marketing shuffle. On a Friday? Fear of Dollhouse AND a show NBC opted NOT to pick up? That's an awful lot to digest. . "We fear for the fate of a show we deliberately slated to air FRIDAY nights because of a show we didn't renew and another show everyone including us thought would be canceled!"
Is this looking out for Southland or about bolstering The Jay Leno in the early days on a night where he has less competition? You can probably guess what I think (rhymes with Ray Speno...).
NBC will be airing Dateline on Friday's at 9pm instead.
A fear of Dollhouse? That’s not a good sign…
the show is unwatchable
Well, Dollhouse promises to be “darker and racier” this season, according to Eliza – with Franz claiming “sex and murder” as one early episode’s main features.
Looks like Joss has decided to throw caution to the winds and blow it out in hopes of surviving.
Problem I see is that the spoilers I’ve seen don’t indicate that he’s actually changing the concept much. Which appears to mean more of the same of season one – which would have gotten the show canceled had they not cut the budget to the bone.
But we’ll see. I don’t have enough data to be sure of that.
IF a program is scared of DOLLHOUSE, I think it’s a hint that the show should cease production immediately and the actors should start finding new work…
Hopefully fear of Dollhouse. Definitely not a bad move on NBC’s part.
Bad sign for the show. If let’s say when it finally premieres and rated lower than Dateline, the show’s fate is sealed. But who knows it could help. But if the purpose is just to take it away from competition of the season premieres of Medium and Dollhouse, why do they have to push it back in a month why not just the following week?
This is a self realizing prophecy. Southland is a show with much potential (but hopefully will be retooled, because its first season was a creative mess) – both creatively and commercially. Publicly declaring before the second season even aired they suffer from inferiority complex – will not bring in more viewers. Why would anyone tune into a show that even its network doesn’t believe in?
Forg you could argue that by waiting a month they get to pick up the viewers that Dollhouse will bleed during its first three or four episodes.
I can’t imagine that this’ll bolster Leno too much one way or the other. Yeah, Dateline and Leno’ll probably have not dissimiliar crossover in terms of overall numbers but considering the likely demographic performance, I can’t see what difference it’ll make whether the lead in really flows or is an island. And winning the Friday 10pm slot is roughly the equivalent of winning a strong man contest in Lichtenstein
not sure how that bolsters jay
jay is on all week
one show isnt gonna be enough to BOLSTER if jay is an epic fail
and they dont have anything else to back it up if it does
maybe we will see Chuck earlier perhaps than later LOL
if jay is a epic fail-which i doubt-i expect to see reality everything from NBC as they dont have much scripted programming waiting in the wings
for what its worth i dont think jay will be a huge hit but i dont think it will be an epic fail as many have predicted as the bar has been set so low according to NBC U
i think whatever his numbers the affilates are going to determine if its a pass or fail and many are already unhappy about jay as a leadin for their news programs
and about southland i dont think it will make any differnce i predict CBS will own fridays with medium,whisperor and numbers hands down.
and dollhouse-i am a fan but i am wary we will see…
they’re not scared of dollhouse, they’re scared of medium, cbs owns friday
im guessing southland will do better than dollhouse, though i think everybody is not alarm that ugly betty is on friday now
who knows who will come on the top. let’s just wait
i like how you always tend to jump to conclusions
“southland is gonna be pushed back so jay will do”
maybe they just wanna advertise it a little more n stuff
and i don’t really see what they’re scared of
dollhouse will get 3.6 max
and medium hasn’t been doin to well in repeats but it’ll probably stay around 6-7 like it was on nbc
the editors see any and I mean ANYTHING they can see to twist around and make it anti nbc and run with it. Fearful of dollhouse? I highly doubt that. The show will be lucky to make it past Christmas. Southland has great potential… I think this ia wise move on NBC’s part.
Season 1 of Southland was great and I’m bummed that the 2nd season has been pushed back. But then again I am used to waiting… *cough Chuck March 2010 cough*
I really liked Southland season One and look forward to season two. I still can’t believe Leno five nights a week at 10PM.
chuck
Alex: Well, probably but the audience Dollhouse could bleed might go to Medium or Ugly Betty (it also premieres in October so I think that’s why it was not mentioned in the press release because it will not premiere on September anyway).
Anyway, I was really looking forward to this season’s Friday night schedule because its really competitive!
They’re joking right? By putting the show on a Friday, they’re setting it up to fail. It’s first season at least had a respectable 2-3 average in the 18-49 demo, but it’s screwed either way.
Of course NBC is fearful of Dollhouse! All networks should fear what will happen when their shows have to go up against Dollhouse! I predict the ratings will rise in a way that makes the ratings increase for that “True Blood” show look like nothing!
Dollhouse returns in 30 days! Watch it or else!
Whether the move is to help Jay or not, it seems silly that they’d be so afraid of a show they canceled and a show everyone thought would be canceled that they’d move the premiere by a whole month. A week, I understand; a month…not so much.
Chet, you don’t think about math much from the point of view of how averages work, do you? You also, make the assumption that Leno will tank, but you don’t quantify it. Leno can probably pull an average A18-49 rating of 1.3 and not really be tanking from NBC’s perspective.
Friday is a day when at 10pm Leno will have relatively little competition, especially on broadcast where it will be 20/20 and Numb3rs. There’s no doubt in my mind new episodes of Numb3rs will win, but Leno should still have one of its best relative performances of the week. Since Friday makes up 20% of Leno’s averages, positioning it do well on a day with light competition, even if there’s fewer people viewing makes sense. Positioning Leno to do well on average in its first month just makes sense. I think it’s smart from NBC’s perspective, even if the difference between Southland and Dateline in terms of impact on Leno’s early days isn’t that big.