NBC was a strong player on Friday nights in the first couple years of the A18-49+ era. But as NBC's depth dried up in the post-Friends years, and as CBS developed Friday dynasties Ghost Whisperer and Numb3rs, Friday became a much lower priority for the network. A recent surprise Friday success called Grimm has gotten the network back to a respectable level on the night.
NBC Friday
| 8:00 | 8:30 | 9:00 | 9:30 | 10:00 | 10:30 | Avg | |
| 2001-02 | Providence | Dateline Fri | Law and Order: SVU | 93 | |||
| 74 | 80 | 124 | |||||
| 2002-03 | Providence | Dateline Fri | Law and Order: SVU | 84 | |||
| 63 | 71 | 119 | |||||
| 2003-04 | Dateline Fri | Miss Match | Third Watch | 72 | |||
| 70 | 61 | 83 | |||||
| 2004-05 | Dateline Fri | Third Watch | Medical Investigation | 69 | |||
| 58 | 72 | 77 | |||||
| 2005-06 | Dateline Fri | Three Wishes | Inconceivable | 51 | |||
| 55 | 53 | 44 | |||||
| 2006-07 | 1 vs. 100 | Las Vegas | Law and Order | 73 | |||
| 73 | 74 | 73 | |||||
| 2007-08 | Deal or No Deal | Friday Night Lights | Las Vegas | 62 | |||
| 65 | 56 | 64 | |||||
| 2008-09 | Deal or No Deal | Crusoe | Lipstick Jungle | 41 | |||
| 43 | 39 | 40 | |||||
| 2009-10 | Law and Order | Dateline Fri | The Jay Leno Show | 52 | |||
| 53 | 55 | 49 | |||||
| 2010-11 | School Pride | Dateline Fri | 46 | ||||
| 26 | 56 | 56 | |||||
| 2011-12 | Chuck | Grimm | Dateline Fri | 54 | |||
| 42 | 65 | 55 | |||||
| 2012-13 | (repeats) | Grimm | Dateline Fri | 56 | |||
| 34 | 74 | 61 | |||||
| 2013-14 | Dateline Fri | Grimm | Dracula | 66 | |||
| 67 | 75 | 55 | |||||
| 2014-15 | Dateline Fri | Grimm | Constantine | 64 | |||
| 69 | 68 | 55 | |||||
| Avg | 57 | 64 | 68 | 63 | |||
2014-15 Update: NBC spent a lot more money in the 10/9c hour with Constantine, but they didn't get any benefit relative to last year's Dracula ratings. (The above average also includes some 8:00 Constantine eps.) So Grimm will not be leading into a new drama this time, at least at the start, and NBC fills the third hour with its token "see, we haven't given up on comedy!" hour: an all-live season of Undateable and fellow multi-cam Truth Be Told.
Notable midseason replacements:
- NBC's treatment of Friday in 2004-05 remains rather noteworthy, as they axed two of the stronger performers we've seen on the night: Medical Investigation and Law and Order: Trial By Jury (79). TBJ may well have had something to do with the death of Jerry Orbach and not wanting to overexpose the L&O brand, but Medical Investigation seemed worthy of another go by Friday standards.
- NBC used reality series Who Do You Think You Are? at 8/7c in midseason for 2009-10 (53), 2010-11 (51) and 2011-12 (43).
4 comments:
Is Medical Investigation's Plus score masking a big drop-off that happened towards the end of its season? Other than it being an expensive show to produce by Friday standards, that's the only reason I can think of for canceling the show.
I liked TBJ and was sad to see it canceled. I think Jerry Orbach's death was the driving factor because why would NBC bother creating a third spin-off of L&O if there was a fear of overexposure? Besides, SVU picked up a few ticks that season, while CI's drop can be explained by the show having to face Desperate Housewives and the mothership faced similarly-skewing CSI: NY.
I didn't realize how strong their current lineup really is. Good for them. Grimm really is a case study in terms of everyone thinking it was dead and turning into such a big success!
1 vs. 100! Good game show.
I don't even know why they canceled it. Should've kept it going to avoid Deal or No Deal's overexposure.
Very much an underrated classic, well-liked in the game show fandom (and, like DoND, is still going in its native Netherlands if memory serves).
The problem was its second season went awry with a formatting change and the inevitable desperate stunts (including something I'll never understand about US game shows of that era, major mid-episode spoilers - DoND was notorious for it, and, unsurprisingly for a show from the same stable on the same network, 1 vs 100 followed suit). Produced some classic moments, though, and I did like how victorious "mob" members could win money. (The original show picks the next One from the survivors, which kind of works, but doesn't fit with US contestant casting.)
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