Can you explain the logic ...
Question: Can you explain the logic behind Friday-night ratings? It seems to me from following dailies for a few weeks now that
nothing does exceptionally well on Fridays. So when a show like
Threshold wins its slot but takes fewer viewers than its lead-in and follow-up, why is that considered a failure? Now ABC has canceled
Hot Properties, which is a Friday show. And while I didn't watch it, just looking at the numbers, it looks about right for how many people have nothing to do on a date night. I know few 18- to 35-year-olds who aren't out in the clubs, on dates or elsewhere on that day (save those of my friends who throw a sci-fi Friday party). So wouldn't logic dictate that even though a show has fewer viewers on Friday, it's to be expected in the culture we live in? Please help me understand what the networks expect to get on these nights.
Answer: It's a good question, but a hard one to answer. Fridays are becoming the new Saturdays in terms of lowered expectations season after season. It's not quite a graveyard night yet (except where Fox is concerned), but eventually I would expect several networks to abandon the idea of programming first-run dramas and comedies on the night, like everyone has on Saturdays. Fridays work for niche programming (like Sci Fi's successful lineup), and now CBS has secured a hold on the night with a mix of sentimentality (
Ghost Whisperer) and procedurals (
Close to Home and
Numbers). Like you, I had hoped CBS would settle for a cult audience on Friday where
Threshold was concerned. But this is a very aggressive network we're talking about, targeting every time slot in a quest to stay on top in the ratings, and CBS' latest Friday move paid off, albeit at
Threshold's peril. As this and the following question suggest, there ought to be nights and time periods where certain networks just accept the fact that they can't win or draw a huge crowd, and use it as an opportunity to take a risk and do something different — and stick with it a while, in the hopes that it might eventually catch on. Otherwise, we're talking about just more crime-show reruns.
