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How would YOU fix NBC's Thursday nights?
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Posted by: YCantAngieRead

Assume for a second that you are an NBC programming executive, and you are given the task of brainstorming to bring "Must See TV" back to the status it used to have back in the earlier days of ER and Friends and Seinfeld.

Using current TV trends and who you think watches TV on Thursday nights, and NOT your own personal preferences, what would you choose to change?

Let's assume that you can keep or dump ER and Will and Grace (your choice), and that all of the rest of the Thursday night lineup-Friends, The Apprentice, whatever else they tend to show-has been dumped. However, you must keep the first two hours in some sort of comedy and the last hour in some sort of drama or dramedy.

Would you move shows around from other nights? Would you come up with new ideas? If so, what would you dream up to program for ultimate ratings?

I couldn't sleep last night so I was tossing around ideas for these questions...I'd like to see what every one else would do-it's not easy thinking what the general public would like and putting your personal preferences aside.

Posted by: DougF

Don't put "Joey" in the "Friends" slot, it's just a disaster waiting to happen. The expectations are going to be way too high right out of the gate and it can never live up to that, even if the show is good. Move it to another night and give it time to grow. Find something new for 8:00 PM and concede that the 20 year dominance (not counting "Survivor") of that slot is over.

"ER" is wrapping up it's 10th season and has a lot of life still left in it, I think. They've done a nice job of introducing new characters and keeping the show in the top 5. Only problem I see now is that the cast is almost too big. It's hard for any character to get a deep and engrossing story line. I think maybe they should trim a little and try to have a stable cast for a couple of years.

Posted by: Steveknj

I hate to say it, but based on your restrictions, "Must See TV" is doomed. So I am going to ignore your restrictions and this is what I would do.

Move The Apprentice to 8 o'clock and put it head to head with Survivor. I think Survivor might be ripe for the taking finally, and The Apprentice is hot.

For 9 o'clock, I'd either put one of the L&O shows or West Wing, and try and take a bite out of CSI, which I think will die of overkill relatively soon (as you may have surmised, I'm not a fan of CSI). Leave ER at 10 for now.

Meanwhile, I would highlight Joey, Scrubs and W&G (another show I'm not a fan of, but it gets decent ratings) and another sitcom on Tuesday and let it develop a strong following against a bit less competition. If any two of those shows take off, then perhaps when The Apprentice is over, you can move them to Thursday and see what happens.

Posted by: DancnDude

I don't know about putting The Apprentice against Survivor. You would seriously upset Mark Burnett, and with all the hit shows he's been producing, that is not a good idea. Especially when you have another season of The Restaurant coming out so soon.

Posted by: MacThor

quote:
Originally posted by Steveknj
Move The Apprentice to 8 o'clock and put it head to head with Survivor. I think Survivor might be ripe for the taking finally, and The Apprentice is hot.

I know he probably has little say in scheduling, but do you really think Mark Burnett would allow this?

How about :

A show about a black doctor's family..."The Crosbies"
Followed by another family show...."The Ties that Bind"
Followed by a show about a bar in Boston....."Beers"
Followed by Scrubs
Followed by L&O IV?

Posted by: daperlman

1 hours guys getting nailed in the nuts
1 hour of When Animals Attack
the remaining hour: Police chases

Bingo the most engaging prime time anywhere on TV

Posted by: MattDing

I don't think the Apprentice/Survivor battle will ever happen, because I have a strong belief that Mark Burnett would put in his contract with NBC that they couldn't run it head to head with any of his other shows. I don't know that for a fact, but if I was Burnett, I would certainly ask for such a deal. Think about it: there is only a certain number of people who watch TV on a Thursday. If they run two of his shows against each other one of 3 things could happen. 1) Survivor wins and Apprentice drops way down in the ratings. 2) The opposite, with Survivor taking the hit. 3) They split down the middle and both drop in ratings.

None of these things is good for Mark. One of his shows (or both) are losing viewers to the other. He goes from TV golden child to someone with one (or possibly two) shows dropping from the top 10.

That's just my opinion, but it makes good business sense to me.

Posted by: rasheed

Thursday nights need to have simple comedies or established hits. Scrubs is too complicated for Thursdays. It looks like only the 8pm hour needs help as Apprentice is doing fine at 9pm.

Here is what I would recommend:
8pm: Will and Grace
8:30pm: New comedy such as: Joey or The Friendlys or D.O.T.S.
9pm: Apprentice (with encores on CNBC)
10pm: ER (anchor)

Rasheed

Posted by: dswallow

I'd have NBC contract with Joss Whedon to bring Angel over to NBC as well as bring Firefly back to TV. I'd have them both start doing 80 minute episodes. I'd invite independent filmmakers to submit 4 minute films and show 4 or 5 of those interspersed with the series episodes.

Posted by: firerose818

quote:
Originally posted by daperlman
1 hours guys getting nailed in the nuts
1 hour of When Animals Attack
the remaining hour: Police chases

Bingo the most engaging prime time anywhere on TV

Isn't that the FOX Thursday night line up? :confused: :eek: :p

-Rose

Posted by: YCantAngieRead

I've yet to come up with good solutions on my own, by the way. So far, what I've come up with is this:

-Get rid of Will & Grace. If you want a show that can anchor Tuesdays, this might be it but it seems to be quickly going downhill.

-Scrubs did seem to do well on Thursdays...move it back.

-Keep ER, at least for a while. Consider putting in a new drama-something that's a little quirky like Judging Amy-and something that hasn't been done to death already.

-Pitch some new sitcoms. Friends was popular because it rang true for a lot of mid-twenty somethings whose extended family were their friends. Cheers had that same sort of feel. Look at what the trends are right now for the mid-twenties to mid-thirties crowds. Perhaps a show like BBC's The Office.

Edited for something I forgot: I'd probably give Joey a shot on Thursday nights, even though it might be a big failure. It's a gamble that will either pay off well or not pay off at all.

Posted by: canonelan2

My official NBC Thursday Primetime lineup... (central)

7pm = an hour long show called "What the Tivo Community thinks you should be watching!"
8pm = a new season of Firefly with NBC meeting all of Joss's demands
9pm = Season 7 of Angel with NBC meeting all of Joss's demands

a man can dream can't he?

dammit dswallow you beat me to it!!

Posted by: Swirl_Junkie

Bring back Seinfeld.