Friday night death slot
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The "Friday night death slot" is a perceived graveyard slot in American television, referring to the concept that a television program in the United States scheduled on Friday evenings is destined for imminent cancellation.
The term possibly began as a reflection of certain shows' dominance of Friday night in the 1980s, which condemned to death any television show scheduled opposite those programs.[1][2][3] Today it reflects the belief that Americans rarely watch TV on Friday or Saturday nights, as these days people (especially younger people) tend to leave home for other activities, thereby removing the most lucrative demographics for advertisers from the household.[4][5]
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[edit] Programs affected by the "death slot"
[edit] Fox
Perhaps the network which has received the most attention, and has become the most well known for the "Friday Night Death Slot" has been Fox.[6]
The following are all examples of Fox shows that either started on Friday nights and lasted only a few episodes, or were moved to Friday nights, lost the battle for television ratings, and were eventually canceled.
| 2002–2003 | Firefly[7] | Cancelled during its first and only season, leaving three of its fourteen episodes unaired. |
| 2004 | Wonderfalls[7][8] | |
| 2006 | Vanished[9] | Moved to Friday midway through its first and only season |
| 2007 | The Wedding Bells[10] |
In January 2011, the sci-fi drama Fringe was moved into this slot from Thursdays. According to FOX Entertainment President Kevin Reilly, nearly half of Fringe's viewership time shifts the show to watch at their convenience, and that "if it does anywhere near what it did on Thursdays, we can glue that show to the schedule because it can be a big win for us".[11] The FOX network created a promotion advertisement for Fringe that lampooned its reputation of the Friday night death slot prior to Fringe's move.[12][13] Despite encountering lower ratings after its move, Fringe was renewed for a fourth season.[14]
[edit] NBC
The following shows were successful in the ratings until they were moved to Friday nights:
[edit] 1960s: Star Trek vs. Laugh-In
One of the oldest and most famous examples of the start of the "Friday Death Slot" phenomenon started with the original Star Trek on NBC.
The second season of Star Trek aired on Fridays from 8:30–9:30 pm in the Eastern Time Zone. Though NBC discussed plans to move it to a 7:30–8:30 pm slot on Mondays in the mid-season schedule changes, that never occurred. After fans deluged NBC with a mail-in protest, producer Gene Roddenberry stated that he was promised the same 8:30–9:30 time slot for Season 3, but on Monday instead of Friday. However, that would have meant Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In had to start a half-hour later (moving from 9:00 to 9:30). Laugh-In producer George Schlatter saw no reason why his show, which was a ratings smash at the time, had to yield its slot to the poorly rated Star Trek, and he made no secret of his displeasure.[16]
[edit] CBS
In an effort to revive Friday night television in the 1990s, and to compete with ABC's successful TGIF block of family comedies airing opposite it, CBS first attempted to compete with ABC launching a comedy night in the fall of 1992 with The Golden Palace (a spin-off/continuation of NBC's The Golden Girls), Major Dad and Designing Women, along with a new sitcom from Bob Newhart, Bob.[citation needed] The Golden Girls had been a top-10 hit on Saturday nights for NBC (though it had fallen to 30th in its final season), while Major Dad and Designing Women had also been top-10 hits on Monday nights. Nevertheless, this effort failed, and only Bob was renewed for the 1993–1994 season, only to end in December 1993.[17] A later effort to counterprogram TGIF, the CBS Block Party, met a similar fate in 1997.[citation needed]
In general, however, CBS has found ways, particularly in the years following the cancellation of the Block Party, to be at least somewhat more successful in the Friday night time slots than its broadcast competitors.[18][19]
[edit] UPN/The CW and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)
UPN/The CW's WWE Friday Night SmackDown!, originally named SmackDown!, was first broadcast on UPN on Thursdays to compete with WCW Thunder (eventually forcing Thunder to Wednesdays because of high ratings, before WCW was ultimately purchased by Vince McMahon in 2001). UPN moved the show to Friday nights in the United States on September 9, 2005, because of low ratings in its original Thursday night slot, and the show retained its Friday night time slot after moving to The CW. Upon its move to the "death slot," UPN/The CW Friday nights saw a substantial increase in ratings over UPN's movies and most of The WB's sitcoms. SmackDown! had also initially garnered even better ratings in the death slot than the ratings on its former Thursday night airings (after the merging of WCW with WWE in 2001). Despite this, The CW chose not to renew SmackDown's contract in 2008 due to the change of the demographic of the network's viewers, and the show moved to MyNetworkTV that fall,[20] eventually leaving network television altogether with a move to SyFy in 2010.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Katherine Phillips. "Witty sitcoms scheduled in Friday night death slot," Richmond Times-Dispatch, March 28, 1986, page 46: "ABC is sending two of this season's brightest new sitcoms to certain death at the hands of J.R. Ewing and his Dallas clan."
- ^ John Voorhees. "ABC reshuffles schedule for ratings but deals only two new shows," The Seattle Times, December 13, 1985, page C5: "Also being dropped is Our Family Honor, the ABC series that has had the distinction of being the lowest-rated Nielsen show almost every week since its debut. It is in the Friday night death slot of 10 pm, against Miami Vice and Falcon Crest.'
- ^ Knight-Ridder News Service. 'Family Honor' ditched for 'Spenser', Lexington Herald-Leader (KY), October 19, 1985, page C6: "Spenser: For Hire, the above-par detective series starring Robert Urich, is being moved out of the Friday-night death slot opposite Miami Vice and Falcon Crest. ... To make room for "Spenser," ABC is taking "Our Family Honor" off the air [Tuesdays], at least for a while and perhaps permanently.
- ^ News: Election 2006, The Austin Chronicle
- ^ Goodman, Tim (October 10, 2007). "Saturday night is dead, yes, but Friday, too?". San Francisco Chronicle: pp. E1. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/09/DDSNSN1BE.DTL. Retrieved February 7, 2012.
- ^ The 20 Greatest Shows Cancelled by Fox Before their Time. Topless Robot: August 14, 2009
- ^ a b Emily Nussbaum. "Same Night, Same Channel, Same Giant Bummer" (interview with Tim Minear on the demise of Angel, Firefly, and Wonderfalls, The New York Times, April 18, 2004, page 25, column 1.
- ^ Minear, Tim (March 16, 2004). "An Open Letter from Tim Minear". TimMinear.net. http://www.timminear.net/archives/wonderfalls/000057.html. Retrieved November 3, 2007.
- ^ Ryan, Maureen. 'Smith' is gone, 'Heroes' gets a full season: TV news you can use. Chicago Tribune: October 6, 2006.
- ^ Wedding Bells in Jump The Shark[dead link]
- ^ Rice, Lynette (November 22, 2010). "Fox execs on 'American Idol,' 'Fringe' moves: 'It's the right moment'". Entertainment Weekly. http://insidetv.ew.com/2010/11/22/fox-execs-on-american-idol-fringe-moves-its-the-right-moment/. Retrieved November 30, 2010.
- ^ Buchaan, Kyle (December 14, 2010). "Fox Markets Fringe With New ‘Friday Death Slot’ Ad". New York Magazine. http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/12/fringe_friday_time_slot.html. Retrieved December 16, 2010.
- ^ Jensen, Jeff (December 16, 2010). "'Fringe' exclusive: Fox execs on its 'deathslot'-spoofing promo and plans to attract new viewers". Entertainment Weekly. http://insidetv.ew.com/2010/12/16/fringe-exclusive-friday-promo-deathslot/. Retrieved December 16, 2010.
- ^ Rice, Lynette (March 24, 2011). "'Fringe' renewed for a fourth season". Entertainment Weekly. http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/03/24/fringe-renewed-for-fourth-season/. Retrieved March 24, 2011.
- ^ "NBC Chucks Chuck to Friday Night Death Slot". ugo.com. May 16, 2011. http://www.ugo.com/tv/chuck-season-five-friday. Retrieved May 16, 2011.
- ^ "A Look at Star Trek" at www.tvobscurities.com
- ^ Brooks, Tim and Marsh, Earle. The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable Shows 1946–present, 7th edition.
- ^ CBS Casts a Spell Over Friday Night.[verification needed] Zap2It: November 3, 2007
- ^ Friday Night 'Numb3rs' Favor CBS.[verification needed] Zap2It: November 10, 2007
- ^ WWE Puts the 'Smackdown' on MyNetworkTV – Show will make its new network debut in the fall – Zap2it
