The Post-Super Bowl Game Why networks want hits like Criminal Minds to air on their big night
Mandy Patinkin, Criminal Minds
Back in the early '80s, when the Super Bowl moved into prime time, the networks began scheduling a new entertainment show to premiere after the big game, to take advantage of the humongous audience lead-in it provided. NBC started the tradition with
The A-Team, which went on to become a big hit and helped the network begin its run of prime-time ratings dominance that lasted the rest of the decade. The next year, CBS used the platform to launch
Airwolf, which hung around for a few seasons. ABC previewed
The Wonder Years after the game in 1988. That show then had a nice six-year run that included a season in the top 10.
But the tactic of using the supersize audience to launch a show has become a TV-business relic. When it comes to Super Bowl Sunday, networks now go with what they think is their already hot show, instead of something new. For 2007, CBS has given the nod to Criminal Minds to follow Super Bowl XLI. CBS Corp. chairman Leslie Moonves says the network decided to go with the grisly procedural crime drama, now in its second season, because "it's our one show with a bullet." While it will never land on a critic's 10-best list, CM has scored 16.8 million viewers this season, up 23 percent from a year ago. Better to guarantee a big rating — and massive ad rates — than to roll the dice with a possible stinker.
After The Wonder Years, there was a string of post-Super Bowl premieres that went on to be major Nielsen losers — Grand Slam (bounty hunters who threw baseballs at criminals), Davis Rules (even Jonathan Winters couldn't save it), Good Life (only Drew Carey survived) and Extreme (James Brolin on skis). In 1996, in light of those disasters, a smart person in the executive suite in Burbank said, "Why don't we just put on a special episode of one of our hit sitcoms and make a ton of money?" The producers of Seinfeld passed, so NBC went with an hourlong episode of Friends. With 53 million viewers, it stands as the most-watched post-Super Bowl entertainment show of all time.
Since then, only one new show has gotten the post-Super Bowl slot: Fox's Family Guy in 1999. It didn't help. Family Guy was canceled before it became a cult favorite on the Cartoon Network and was resurrected a couple of years later. American Dad premiered on Super Bowl Sunday in 2005, but that was preceded by an episode of The Simpsons.
CBS likely took into account how ABC fared with Grey's Anatomy after Super Bowl XL. Not only did it deliver the highest post-Super Bowl entertainment show rating since Survivor in 2001, but it introduced Grey's to new male viewers who continued to tune in for the rest of the season and made the show strong enough for its move to Thursday night this fall.
Will CBS get the same halo effect for
Criminal Minds? That's hard to say, but for at least one night, it will get ratings that other shows would kill for.
