Re: CBS's Proof Positive

On Nov 2, 9:44 am, Michael Black <et...@xxxxxx> wrote:
On Sat, 1 Nov 2008, WQ wrote:
CBS on Friday proved once and for all what I've been saying all
along.  Give viewers something to watch on Friday and they'll come
running to it.  Case in point: the NCIS repeat at 9 pm got a 7.2, and
on a Halloween night too.  That's way up from the 3.7 an original
episode of Ex List got the week before, making it practically double
the viewership, which in turn helped pump up the numbers a bit for
lead-in Ghost Whisperer and especially lead-out Numbers to 6.1 and
6.8, respectively, all adding up to a healthy win of the night for the
network.  Friday isn't the ratings graveyard shift that the networks
think it is; it's just that the networks treat it that way.

But did you factor in Halloween?

--- Of course I did. Halloween is when people go out with their kids
trick and treating, not stay home to watch an NCIS repeat. Halloween
is also when all those 18-49-year-olds go partying, not stay home to
watch an NCIS repeat. But they're also not the only kinds of people
out there watching TV, or wanting to watch it, on Halloween or any
Friday night. NCIS may've been a repeat, but who knows how many of
those who watched it had actually seen that episode before. The point
is, there's a huge disenfranchised group of viewers out there on a
Friday who only end up doing other things because the networks have
shown no interest for quite a while now in programming Fridays
seriously, not only for viewers, but also for themselves. It's in a
network's interest to make something out of Friday, otherwise why not
just pass off the night to its affiliates for local programming
instead?

Likely people felt obligated to stay home to hand out candy, so
they were in on a Friday night to watch tv.  Plus, adults with
young children would have gone out trick or treating, and home
in time to watch whatever was on, too tired to do something else.

--- Well, another NCIS repeat is scheduled for next Friday, so we'll
see if the results prove to be the same, this time without the H
factor.

On the other hand, that figure is likely diminished somewhat by
the adults who think Halloween is an adult event, and get dressed
up in costume and go out to party.

--- There are 300 million people in the U.S. Only 11 million of them
watched NCIS. You can't tell me that the other 289 million went to
halloween parties or trick and treating. Even if half of them did,
then the Big 3 should be able to easily tap into at least a quarter of
the half that's left, or 36 million out of 72 million out of 144
million, to share among themselves. CBS managed to get almost a third
of that 36 million for itself, so how come ABC and NBC are both asleep
with just 4 million apiece at 9 pm alone? Because they've given up,
they're not serious; and if they're not serious, how can you expect
viewers to be serious about watching anything on Friday? At least CBS
continues to program the night for viewers to mixed success, but
success nevertheless, and the image it conveys of earnestly reaching
out to viewers on that night is rewarded by those viewers who embrace
its lineup while largely rejecting the competition who clearly show no
respect for Friday night. And if networks don't respect Friday night,
why should viewers watch those networks? I mean, I don't watch
anything on Fridays myself, but when I do flip around for something to
stick to even for only 15 minutes, CBS is usually the network I find
myself ending up with, catching a segment of a Ghost Whisperer here
and an extract of a Numbers there, but rarely whole episodes of
either. Still, it just goes to show how even I gravitate to what's
"really on" on that night and compeltely ignore the rest of the stuff,
yet at the same time I crave to watch other and better shows on the
night, which don't seem at all forthcoming anytime in the foreseeable
future - unless it's on CBS.


.

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