The Question, Friday 11/2/12: Is Friday Reba Country?

I said pre-season that ABC's Last Man Standing and Malibu Country had the best chance for success among the four scripted options in the Friday 8/7c hour. I guess I win by default, since two of those four lineups were rescheduled elsewhere before even airing and a third (CSI: NY) lasted for just two weeks before moving. LMS and Malibu are still a go starting tonight, but it remains rather questionable whether ABC's rearrangement of an already successful Friday will be a net positive. Is Friday Reba country? That's The Question for Friday, November 2, 2012.

Last Man Standing Premiere/Avg/Finale

3.6 premiere (Tuesday 10/11/11) 2.42 average (Tuesdays 8/7c) 1.7 finale (Tuesday 5/8/12)

One thing in Malibu Country's favor is that it premieres the night after one of its best possible opportunities for promotion: The CMA Awards. I didn't watch, but I'm sure ABC worked very hard to create awareness about the show during that event, which was certainly heavily watched by Reba's fanbase. One thing working against it is that Last Man Standing was a fading show late last season, and it'd probably be a solid win if it could come back at the low end of last season's post-DST Tuesday ratings. I feel confident that Reba is enough of a draw that Malibu should build in the demo from Last Man on premiere night, and quite possibly by a significant amount. But if Last Man goes super low it could limit Malibu's potential.

Over/Under for Malibu Country: 1.65.

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