Tank Jobs and Sabotage

[kalbir]

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@Paul Raven has a good explanation for Riptide in this thread.

[Paul Raven]

That comment prompted me to do  a deep dive into WKRP's scheduling history.

It debuted Fall 78 at a time when CBS needed to replenish their sitcom stock. Their last new sitcom hit was Alice, now into it's 3rd season. Good Times and Rhoda were on their last legs(that's another story)

Anyway WKRP was given the tough gig of leading off Mon night against powerhouse Little House on NBC. It got good reviews but was saddled with the dud magazine show People and CBS wisely moved it to 9.30 following MASH, where it flourished.

It kept that slot next season until mid season when CBS replaced it with House Calls and sent WKRP back to Mon @8 again to try and bolster Last Resort, another struggling new sitcom.

In Fall 80 CBS decided Flo would be a better Mon lead in (not the case) and WKRP was sent to Sat night to lead the night. It did well enough teamed with Tim Conway  but the rest of the night was a flop.

For it's final season ,as CBS had placed Walt Disney on Sat CBS moved it to We @8.30 following the kiddie sitcom Mr Merlin, which (surprise) flopped. CBS then moved WKRP to Wed @9 against 2 strong shows Fall Guy and Facts of Life and that was it.

Looking back the show never got the support it needed. Had they kept it after MASH for longer, to really solidify it's following it might have stood a chance when moved to another timeslot. 

[Khan]

I agree.  WKRP's creator/EP, Hugh Wilson, always maintained that WKRP was not an "8:00 show," where more family-centered shows tended to dominate.  CBS, on the other hand, believed that the "Top 40 radio station" premise (and, of course, Loni Anderson) would appeal better to teenagers, so they encouraged Wilson, at least in the beginning, to steer the show away from the kind of character-driven humor that Wilson had envisioned and that MTM shows had been known for, and to do broader, more farcical shows, like the one where WKRP's mascot gets into a bathroom brawl with the mascot from their rival station.

[soapfan770]

Thank you guys for clearing up what happened to RipTide and Crazy Like a Fox. I clearly remember my dad watching both of those shows.

It did look like NBC trying to a Friday night action line-up on Friday nights in the 1985-86 season with Riptide, Knight Rider, and Miami Vice on the line-up. Other than Miami Vice's flash in the pan season we discussed in the 80s ratings thread, it clearly didn't work. 

Both Yes Dear and Rules, (and King of Queens) were shows I found dumb but watched them anyways as my partner at the time watched lol and I use them for background noise in the evenings while I was on the computer. Rules' timeslot changes were baffling at times; at one point CBS was advertising and airing new episodes on Saturday nights(!) for a brief period in 2011 before going back to its old timeslot, so someone was clearly trying it get rid of it. 

Re: WKRP. I loved that show in reruns I didn't realize it had so many scheduling problems, that's unfortunate. I'm probably one of few people to freely I also watched all of the New WKRP as well 

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. My local Fox station carried it early Saturday evenings right after a WKRP rerun. 

Another tank job I can think of is CBS and Picket Fences. This one puzzles me a bit as CBS didn't seem to consider moving the show to to attract better ratings with light of its Emmy wins and widespread acclaim during its first three seasons. Then came Season 4, CBS moved Picket Fences up an hour to 9:00ET/8:00CT to make room for the new show American Gothic, and the show's ratings outright plummeted to the bottom depths of the Nielsens as it was now competing directly with The X-Files and had the weakest of weak lead-ins with the failed Due South. The show was promptly cancelled along with Due South and American Gothic. 

 

 

 

[Paul Raven]

What was the deal with AfterMash ?

The idea of continuing the show may have been ultimately misguided but you can't blame CBS for going with it. Some of the Mash creatives were involved I think and there was a lot of interest and good will there as evidenced by the show debuting at #1.

The show held its own initially in the tough 9pm Monday slot ranking in the Top 15 but in the second half it fell against big TV movies (something About Amelia) mini series (Lace) and specials (Anerican Music Awards,Olympics). 

And then Kate & Allie replaced it and did better. Nonetheless it finished #15 for the season.

So CBS renews it but moves it to one of its dead zones Tues @8 up against a hot show A Team. OK that was counterprogramming but it seemed like CBS just wasn't interested in After Mash. It was cancelled mid season.

 

[kalbir]

Possible tank job

2001/02: After four Top 10 seasons and one Top 30 season at Sunday 8 pm, CBS moves Touched by an Angel back to Saturday, where it was not a hit in its first two seasons. Touched by an Angel falls out of the Top 30 but returns 2002/03 on Saturday for what would be its final season.

Possible sabotage

1997/98: CBS moves Murphy Brown from Monday to Wednesday and the ratings drop further (Murphy Brown went from 18th in 1995/96 to below the Top 30 in 1996/97). Later in the season CBS moves Murphy Brown back to Monday but the damage was already done and Murphy Brown is cancelled after 10 seasons.

[Khan]

IMO, "Murphy Brown" ran for about five seasons too long.  Once Gary Dontzig, Steven Peterman and Korby Siamis stepped down as showrunners after S6, the show's writing wasn't nearly as sharp as it had been before.

[soapfan770]

True story around that time there were some messages boards and e-mail chain messages (remember those?) dissecting an e-mail hoax/urban legend claiming the infamous atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hair was suing CBS to get the show cancelled because it focused too much on God or something like that and that’s why the show moved or something. What the hoax didn’t disclose was O’Hair had been literally missing for years at that point and also misspelled her name. Not long after the hoax was discredited O’Hair’s body was discovered. 

I have to agree, I know I had stopped watching at some point 1995-ish as years later when I saw the Lily Tomlin era in reruns I didn’t remember that at all. 

[Khan]

That would have made for a great episode of "Murder, She Wrote," lol.

[te.]

I guess this falls under "Counterprogramming to try and sabotage another network, shows survival be damned", but scheduling Freshman Dorm / 2000 Malibu Road against Beverly Hills 90210 / Melrose Place during the late summer of '92. While 2000 Malibu Road outrated Melrose Place because that was getting weaker post-premiere, Freshman Dorm just bombed against The Summer of Deception (aka Douchebag Dylan and That Snake Kelly Gets It On), because how couldn't it? It just seemed like ruthless counterprogramming where they almost weren't that concerned with the success of their own shows as much as trying to damage the Fox line-up. It was summer, so it wasn't like there weren't other timeslots available...

Okay, Freshman Dorm was maybe too young to last on CBS (though I could see it being a cute show to on early Sunday evening), but 2000 Malibu Road clearly had potential to replace the aging Knots Landing. Either way, both shows probably could've rated better away from the Fox line-up.

[dragonflies]

There was a season of Boy Meets World where they moved it to like I think 9:30 and they reference in an episode where they say "They're trying to kill it" and not long after that the show goes back to it's regular time slot lol 
 

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[soapfan770]

Sabotage and Tank Job that backfired @kalbir?

For the 1997-98 season CBS decided to air Diagnosis Murder at 9:00ET/8:00CT opposite Seinfeld. Seinfeld was obviously #1 for that season, but DM made shockwaves coming in at #26 and was also a top #30 hit the following season as well.

Despite the infamous disastrous start for the 1997-98 season, CBS would rank #2 for the 97-97 for the first time since 93-94 given the success of their Sunday, Monday, Diagnosis Murder on Thursday, and a unusually strong for the 90’s  Saturday night lineup.

[dragonflies]

Wasn't MacGyver moved to a new timeslot too? I remember WTB and MacGyver all ending the same year 

[soapfan770]

Boy Meets World was definitely the last classic ABC TGIF show as well as probably the most realistic of the lot. Yet upon rewatch it hasn’t aged well either. At least this and the first few seasons of Sabrina anchored the TGIF line-up for a few years before ABC shelved it.

Nah MacGyver died in its time-slot, which was ultimately awkward to begin with as a lead in to Monday Night Football, MacGyver would get bumped and/or pre-empted for its Mountain and Pacific time slots. Meanwhile NBC and CBS flourished on Monday nights in the late 80’s and 90’s with strong counter programming for the most part.

The same thing happened a few years later when ABC thought it it would be cute to air Coach on Monday nights, have it backfire and move Coach back to airing after Roseanne. 

[Khan]

To this day, I don't understand why "Coach" appealed to so many.  Neither the cast nor the writing was ever funny.

Edited March 2, 2024 by Khan