Time Slot Hits

[Contessa Donatella]

We were huge fans of MAD ABOUT YOU & always saw it. None of the other mentioned shows were on our list. Used to recite lines from MAD ABOUT YOU. But, they changed the show & we were gone. Just anecdotal, my experience. FWIW I pass it on.

[DRW50]

Mad About You, for sure. I never hear anyone talk about Just Shoot Me. 

[te.]

Maybe I just know too many based gays who love Nina van Horn.

[Paul Raven]

Hearts Afire starring John Ritter and Markie Post

In it's first season 92/93  at Mon 8.30 it ranked #20 following Evening Shade #19.

So CBS decided for 93/94 to move it to 9pm Friday where they were trying to build a comedy night. But before the season began it was rescheduled to 8pm Wed.

CBS delayed the intro of the Wed night lineup till several weeks into the season. In a 1hr debut Hearts Afire ranked #73 up against Home Improvement, Unsolved Mysteries and 90210. It stayed in the 50's and 60's.

The Nanny new at 8.30 consistently outrated HA so CBS swapped them around in Jan butby March it was dropped.

CBS in April moved it to Mon 9.30 following Murphy Brown. It's first episode there was #11. and rated well in a short run.

So CBS gave it another chance for 94/95 - Sat 9.30 following new comedy 5 Mrs Buchanans. In Wk1 of the season 5 Mrs Buchanans was #41 HA #62

So CBS moved it to 8.30 Wed following the new Delta Burke sitcom Woman of the House. That was disaster with HA ranked #81. After a few weeks it was dropped and that was it for Hears Afire.

Only ever flourished following a stronger show - timeslot hit!

[kalbir]

Flourished while following a stronger show - Growing Pains, Moonlighting, The Wonder Years

1985/86: ABC's new Tuesday lineup is Who's the Boss 8 pm (in its second season and moved up from 8:30 pm), new comedy Growing Pains 8:30 pm, Moonlighting 9 pm (in its second season and moved up from 10 pm). Who's the Boss moves up from below the Top 30 to 10th. Growing Pains finishes 17th (tied w/ Knots Landing). Moonlighting moves up from below the Top 30 to 24th (tied w/ Falcon Crest and Valerie).

1986/87: No change to the Tuesday lineup. Who's the Boss remains 10th. Growing Pains moves up to 8th. Moonlighting moves up to 9th (it's highest finish ever).

1987/88: ABC changes the Tuesday lineup March 1988, new comedy The Wonder Years replaces Growing Pains at 8:30 pm and Growing Pains moves to Wednesday 8 pm for the final 7 episodes of the season. Who's the Boss moves up to 6th (it's highest finish ever). Growing Pains moves up to 5th (it's highest finish ever). The Wonder Years finishes 10th (tied w/ ALF). Moonlighting drops to 12th (tied w/ L.A. Law).

1988/89: ABC's new Tuesday lineup is Who's the Boss 8 pm, new comedy Roseanne 8:30 pm, Moonlighting 9 pm. ABC's new Wednesday lineup is Growing Pains 8 pm, Head of the Class 8:30 pm, The Wonder Years 9 pm. Midseason ABC redoes the Tuesday lineup to The Wonder Years 8:30 pm, Roseanne 9 pm, new comedy Anything but Love 9:30 pm. Moonlighting moves to Sunday 8 pm. Who's the Boss drops to 7th. The Wonder Years drops to 22nd (8 episodes aired Wednesday 9 pm and 9 episodes aired Tuesday 8:30 pm). Growing Pains drops to 13th (tied w/ L.A. Law). Moonlighting falls below the Top 30 and is cancelled (7 episodes aired Tuesday 9 pm and 6 episodes aired Sunday 8 pm). ABC had to have known that moving Moonlighting to Sunday 8 pm head-to-head with Murder, She Wrote (which was still a Top 10 show at that point) would be a death knell.

1989/90: ABC Tuesday lineup remains Who's the Boss 8 pm, The Wonder Years 8:30 pm. Who's the Boss drops to 12th. The Wonder Years moves up to 8th (it's highest finish ever). Growing Pains remains Wednesday 8 pm and drops to 21st.

1990/91: ABC's new Wednesday lineup is The Wonder Years 8 pm, Growing Pains 8:30 pm. The Wonder Years drops to 30th. Growing Pains drops to 27th.

1991/92: The Wonder Years moves to Wednesday 8:30 pm then back to 8 pm. Growing Pains moves to Saturday 8:30 pm then 9:30 pm. The Wonder Years falls out of the Top 30. Growing Pains falls out of the Top 30 and is cancelled.

1992/93: The Wonder Years remains Wednesday 8 pm. It finishes below the Top 30 and is cancelled.

 

Edited September 29, 2022 by kalbir

[kalbir]

I debated about including Frasier, since it was critically acclaimed and well-loved, but the above might apply.

1993/94: NBC new Thursday lineup Seinfeld 9 pm (moved up from 9:30 pm) and new comedy Frasier 9:30 pm. Seinfeld moves up from 25th to 3rd. Frasier finishes 7th.

1994/95: Frasier moves to Tuesday 9 pm, where it’s head-to-head w/ Home Improvement. Frasier drops to 15th. Home Improvement drops from 2nd to 3rd. NBC had to have known that moving Frasier head-to-head w/ Home Improvement would result in a drop.

1995/96 to 1997/98: Frasier and Home Improvement are head-to-head Tuesday 9 pm. Frasier finishes 11th (tied w/ 20/20), 16th, 14th. Home Improvement finishes 7th, 9th, 10th.

1998/99: Frasier moves to Thursday 9 pm and moves up to 3rd (it’s highest finish ever).

1999/2000: Frasier remains Thursday 9 pm but drops to 6th.

2000/01: Frasier returns to Tuesday 9 pm and drops to 17th, tied w/ Temptation Island.

2001/02 to 2003/04: Frasier remains Tuesday 9 pm for its final three seasons. It finishes 14th (tied w/ JAG), 26th, 30th (tied w/ King of Queens).

Edited September 29, 2022 by kalbir

[Paul Raven]

By the 88/89 season Moonlighting was in serious trouble BTS. Cybill and Bruce feuding and production being delayed.

ABC didn't have enough episodes to fill the slot and ABC had to  program movies and specials up till Wk 12 of the season. Moonlighting ranked #13 in its season debut but drifted downwards and had to be preempted due to lack of eps. Meanwhile In the Heat of the Night on NBC was taking viewers.

Luckily Roseanne was hit and they could move it to 9pm.

I think this was one of the few times a show was moved to a leadin slot in it's first season.

Sun @8 was a black hole for ABC at that time. Viewers and ABC had had enough of Moonlighting by that time and it was sent there to die, raking #70 in its first Sunday showing.

Edited September 29, 2022 by Paul Raven

[te.]

Moonlighting definitively had its own audience when you look at its ratings - it's just that it fell apart backstage and then came Roseanne and eclipsed it. 

 

http://tvtango.com/series/moonlighting/episodes

 

Click on the links during the first few seasons and you can see it clearly grew out of its lead-ins during the first few seasons... then Roseanne happened, but it doesn't mean Moonlighting didn't have any hype at the start.

[kalbir]

One has to wonder that if it had not been for the breakout success of The Cosby Show, would Family Ties, Cheers, Night Court have found the audiences that they eventually did? Then there's the other question of would Family Ties and Night Court have fallen as much as they did once they were no longer the lead outs to The Cosby Show and Cheers respectively?

1984/85: NBC's new Thursday lineup is new comedy The Cosby Show 8 pm, Family Ties 8:30 pm, Cheers 9 pm, Night Court 9:30 pm (moved from Wednesday 9:30 pm). The Cosby Show finishes 3rd. Family Ties moves from below the Top 30 to 5th. Cheers moves from below the Top 30 to 12th (tied w/ Hotel). Night Court moves from below the Top 30 to 20th.

1985/86: The Cosby Show moves up to #1. Family Ties moves up to 2nd. Cheers moves up to 5th. Night Court moves up to 11th.

1986/87: The Cosby Show remains #1. Family Ties remains 2nd. Cheers moves up to 3rd. Night Court moves up to 7th.

1987/88: NBC places new comedy A Different World Thursday 8:30 pm. Family Ties moves to Sunday 8 pm, where it's head-to-head w/ Murder, She Wrote (which was a Top 5 show heading into Fall 1987). The Cosby Show remains #1. Family Ties drops to 17th. NBC had to have known that moving Family Ties head-to-head w/ Murder, She Wrote would result in a drop. Cheers remains 3rd. Night Court remains 7th.

1988/89: NBC places new comedy Dear John Thursday 9:30 pm. Night Court moves to Wednesday 9 pm. Cheers drops to 4th. Night Court drops to 21st. Family Ties remains Sunday 8 pm but falls below the Top 30 and is cancelled. The Cosby Show remains #1.

1989/90: Night Court remains Wednesday 9 pm and finishes 28th, tied w/ The Simpsons and Doogie Howser, M.D. The Cosby Show tied for #1 w/ Roseanne. Cheers moves up to 3rd.

1990/91: Night Court moves to Friday 9 pm then Wednesday 9 pm but falls below the Top 30. The Cosby Show drops to 5th. Cheers moves up to #1.

1991/92: Night Court remains Wednesday 9 pm, finishes below the Top 30, and is cancelled. The Cosby Show drops to 18th in its final season. Cheers drops to 4th (tied w/ Home Improvement first season).

1992/93: Cheers drops to 8th (tied w/ CBS Sunday Movie) in its final season.

Edited November 25, 2022 by kalbir

[Paul Raven]

 

Moonlighting definitively had its own audience when you look at its ratings - it's just that it fell apart backstage and then came Roseanne and eclipsed it. 

I wasn't suggesting Moonlighting was a timeslot hit, just went on a bit of a tangent when it was mentioned.

Guess the move of Family Ties had a few motivations.

Firstly NBC had been underperforming in the important Sunday night slot, they had tried new sitcoms with no success. So they knew FT would bring more viewers to that slot.

Secondly MSW had older demographics so FT was good counterprogramming

Thirdly Cosby/Carsey-Werner insisted ADW was placed Thurs 8.30 so FT had to move somewhere.

[kalbir]

Murder, She Wrote also dropped in 1987/88, from 4th to 9th, but went back up to 8th in 1988/89. Then again, 1987/88 was the season Nielsen changed the audience measuring method and CBS's entire primetime lineup tanked resulting in the first of four consecutive third place finishes.

[Paul Raven]

Marcus Welby MD on ABC

It only ever played in one timeslot Tues at 10 but was programmed against the CBS Newshour and the last hour of the NBC movie.But once a month NBC pre-empted the movie for its own news series First Tuesday.

Traditionally those newshours were low rating so MW had everyone turning to ABC. It was 8th in its first season.

In season 2 it shot to No.1 helped by its lead in ABC Movie of The Week which was 6th.

It was ABC's first No.1 show and it was unusual for a 10pm show to be first for the season.

Once the opposition started scripted programs against it the ratings dropped and it spent the last couple of seasons out of the Top 30.

[kalbir]

Flourished while following a stronger show - Will & Grace

1998/99: NBC initially schedules Will & Grace Monday 9:30 pm. It then moves to Tuesday 9:30 pm and the final four episodes of the season are Thursday 8:30 pm. Finishes below the Top 30.

1999/2000: Moves to Tuesday 9 pm and finishes below the Top 30.

2000/01: Moves to Thursday 9 pm and moves up to 14th. Thursday 8 pm Friends finishes 5th, tied w/ Monday Night Football and Everybody Loves Raymond.

2001/02: Remains Thursday 9 pm and moves up to 9th (tied w/ Leap of Faith). Thursday 8 pm Friends moves up to #1.

2002/03: Remains Thursday 9 pm but drops to 11th (tied w/ CSI: Miami). Thursday 8 pm Friends drops to 2nd.

2003/04: Episodes 1-9 Thursday 9 pm. Episodes 10-21 Thursday 8:30 pm. Episodes 22-24 Thursday 9 pm. Drops to 13th. Thursday 8 pm Friends drops to 4th in its final season.

2004/05: Moves to Thursday 8:30 pm and falls below the Top 30.

2005/06: Episodes 1 –9 Thursday 8:30 pm. Episodes 10-22 Thursday 8 pm. Episode 23 Thursday 9 pm. Finishes below the Top 30 and is cancelled.

Edited October 2, 2022 by kalbir

[Paul Raven]

The Jeffersons

Debuts Jan 75 [email protected] in b/w All in The Family and Mary Tyler Moore

74/75  Jeffersons is #4 AITF #1

For the 75/76 season Jeffersons moves to Sat @ 8 as AITF is moved to Mon @9

75/76 Jeffersons #21

76/77 Begins the season Sat @ 8 but midseason moves to Wed @ 8.30 following Good Times

Ranking # 24

77/78 Sat @9 then Sat @8 Out of the Top 30

78/79 wed @8 then Sun @ 9.30 Out of the Top 30

79/80 Sun @9.30 #8 behind Alice #6

80/81 Sun @9.30 #6 behind Alice #7

81/82 Sun @ 9.30 #3 behind Alice #5

82/83 Sun @9 #12 behind Gloria #18

83/84 Sun @9 #19 behind various sitcoms

84/85 Sun @9 behind Murder She Wrote - began fading , losing its timeslot to movies and not holding onto MSW lead in. Moved to Tues @8 and cancelled.

Interesting that for a couple of seasons it outrated its Alice lead in. I guess viewers watched the first half hour of opposition movies and if they weren't interested switched back to CBS.

 

 

[kalbir]

Two to add to flourished while following a stronger show.

Touched by an Angel

1994/95: CBS initially schedules Touched by an Angel Wednesday 9 pm then moves it to Saturday 9 pm. Finishes below the Top 30.

1995/96: Remains Saturday 9 pm and finishes below the Top 30.

1996/97: Moves to Sunday 8 pm and moves up to 10th. Sunday 7 pm 60 Minutes finishes 11th.

1997/98 to 2000/01: Remains Sunday 8 pm and finishes 5th, 8th, 10th, 22nd (tied w/ Cursed/The Weber Show and NYPD Blue). Sunday 7 pm 60 Minutes finishes 8th, 7th, 8th, 15th.

2001/02: Moves to Saturday 8 pm and falls below the Top 30.

2002/03: Remains Saturday 8 pm, finishes below the Top 30, and is cancelled.

The Practice

1996/97: ABC premieres The Practice midseason Tuesday 10 pm. 6 episode first season while NYPD Blue is on a hiatus. Finishes below the Top 30.

1997/98: Moves to Saturday 10 pm then Monday 10 pm. Finishes below the Top 30.

1998/99: Moves to Sunday 10 pm. Finishes below the Top 30.

1999/2000: Remains Sunday 10 pm. January 2000, Who Wants to be a Millionaire replaces cancelled Snoops Sunday 9 pm. The Practice moves up to 9th. Millionaire Sunday finishes 3rd.

2000/01: Remains Sunday 10 pm but drops to 10th. Sunday 9 pm Millionaire drops to 8th.

2001/02: Remains Sunday 10 pm. ABC replaces Sunday 9 pm Millionaire w/ Alias. The Practice drops to 23rd, tied w/ NYPD Blue. Alias finishes below the Top 30.

2002/03: Moves midseason to Monday 9 pm and falls below the Top 30.

2003/04: Moves back to Sunday 10 pm but finishes below the Top 30 and is cancelled.