Fall TV: Moving Day – The Good and The Bad

September 7, 2009  |   Filed under: Features  |   Posted by:

By: Adam Wright

With the new fall season upon us, some of our favorite shows have moved days. The network does this for many reasons. Either they feel it can do better in the ratings, or they’re making room for a new show, or whatever.

But some of these moves can either make or break a series. So before the new season kicks-off, let’s take a look at some of these moves.

Law & Order: SVU – NBC

New Home: Wednesday at 9 pm ET

NBC dodged a huge bullet over the summer when they re-signed Mariska Hargitay and Chis Meloni to new contracts to stay on the series.

SVU is currently the #1 rated scripted-drama on the network. However it has been one of the victims of NBC’s experiment with The Jay Leno Show, airing weeknights at 10 pm ET. With Leno at 10 pm ET, it took SVU’s timeslot.

On Wednesday nights in its new timeslot, L&O SVU now faces tougher competition. It goes up against Criminal Minds on CBS, Glee on FOX, Modern Family and Cougar Town on ABC, and The Beautiful Life on The CW.

Expect this timeslot to be the one of the most competitive. Criminal Minds has been doing great in its spot. Glee and Modern Family have been two of the most talked about new shows coming.

SVU’s numbers will suffer on its new night.

Verdict: Bad Move

Next we take a look at what I think is the move that took the most balls by a network.

Fringe – FOX

New Home: Thursday at 9 pm ET

The Thursday 9 pm ET timeslot was once the most competitive slot on TV. It had CSI, Grey’s Anatomy going head-to-head, which were two of the top rated shows.

Fringe is entering its second season after a very successful first season. It was the #2 new show of last year, and had one of the best season finales.

Now it moves to its new night against CSI on CBS, Grey’s Anatomy on ABC, comedies on NBC, and Supernatural on The CW.

But let’s face it folks, CSI and Grey’s Anatomy have been hurting. Last year before shows ended with series-low numbers, after a cast shake-up. So what better time for FOX to take advantage and put up a newer show against these two former giants!

It’s a ballsy move by FOX, but I like it!

Verdict: Good Move

Finally, let’s take a look at a very busy Friday night.

Southland – NBC

Law & Order – NBC

Ugly Better – ABC

Medium – CBS

Smallville – The CW

New Homes: Friday nights

Friday nights was once considered TV’s graveyard. But now this season, it seems to be a lot busier. But which of these moves will be good?

Ugly Betty on ABC was moved to 9 pm ET, which surprisingly could work for it. It’s paired up with Supernanny, which does decent for Friday night standards. Both shows have the same target audience. So this move works.

Medium not only moved nights, it moved networks. CBS picked up the psychic-drama after NBC cancelled it from their schedule. So it’s only natural that Medium is teamed up with another psychic-drama, Ghost Whisperer. Again, both shows have the same target-audience. And these two shows make a great tag-team, not to mention cross-over potential.

Verdicts for Ugly Betty and Medium: Good Moves

The CW moved Smallville to Friday nights to give its former slot to the new show Vampire Diaries. It made sense to put V.D. with Supernatural.

But Smallville has been struggling. And with this potentially the last season, moving it to Friday nights it’s giving it a slow painful death.

Same goes to Southland on NBC. This is another show formerly in the 10 pm ET, which belongs to Leno now. Southland was slumping in the ratings, but it was critically acclaimed, and had potential to grow. Moving it to Friday nights after its first show is giving it a death-sentence.

Finally, this last move baffles me.  The longest-running drama on TV is beginning its 20th season on the air. Unfortunately, the network showed it no respect, and sent it to Friday nights.

Law & Order on NBC, again, was in the 10 pm ET timeslot. And it was doing decent in the ratings. An iconic show like this deserved better than a death-sentence on Friday nights. Shame on NBC.

Verdicts for Smallville, Southland, and Law & Order: Bad Moves

There you have it folks. I’ve course, these are my personal opinion, and I could be way off. What do you all think? Weigh in on these moves.

2009-2010 Season Schedule

Be Sociable, Share!
Posted by on September 7, 2009. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
  • richese

    I really hate NBC now, I don’t watch L&O:SVU but anyone can see this was a bad move. Their best show is now going against Criminal Minds, and they are pretty much the same kind of series, they are going to be fighting for the same audience and CBS is going to win because NBC sucks now and because CBS is the king of criminal dramas.

    I don’t know if Fringe was a good move because I believe part of his good performance last year was thanks to House and AI as leads, and now Bones is going before Fringe and is not the same.

    And you missed one show: The Mentalist is moving to Thursday 10 p.m. after CSI. I don’t know why they did this, ye, CBS didn’t do well at that time slot last year, but The Mentalist was the biggest new show last year.

  • tvjunkywright

    Yes totally forgot The Mentalist.

    This was the #1 new show last year, and now it’s up against Leno, and Private Practice. So I think with the CSI lead-in, I think it’s a good move.

    Heck, it could even improve CSI’s numbers. So yes, Mentalist, good move.