How could Fox move House to ...

Question: How could Fox move House to Tuesdays at 8 pm/ET? It is so established at 9, yet once again, Fox feels the need to alienate some more viewers. Do you think ratings will drop? The ratings for the repeats show the 9 pm airing gets considerably more viewers than the 8 pm one. Obviously Fox dooesn't have much confidence in Standoff if it feels the need to make House a lead-in. Will House go back to 9 pm once Idol starts again?
Answer: Actually, House will go back to its regular time period (9 pm/ET) when it returns from the postseason baseball hiatus on Oct. 31. Fox will air House an hour earlier only for the first month of new episodes, starting Sept. 5. I wrote a Dispatch bitching about this very thing, and I agree it's an unnecessary, confusing aggravation. I doubt it will harm House that much, though. (I can't think of a bigger waste of time than looking at summer repeat ratings, but they do show that House scores better later at night because more people are inside watching TV at that point.) Fans are going to follow this show just about anywhere, and as you noted, Fox is only doing this to give a lead-in boost to one of its more problematic new dramas. Honestly, the last thing we need in the fall is for the networks to make finding our shows any more difficult.