Friday Night 2009-10: TV’s Scripted Misfits Bomb; And CBS Dramas Wilt

[WyldeMan45]

Those are some pretty big drops, 25% on most because of Friday night timeslots? yeah networks might wanna shape up for next season.

Except for CBS, the broadcast networks loaded up their Friday’s last fall with their misfit scripted shows, and the ratings disappointed on the downside (except for the possible exception of Smallville). Even CBS, the only network to put 3 scripted hours on Friday, saw its shows bleed demo viewers at a far higher rate than the rest of its schedule.

Fox’s misfit comedies (Brothers, Til Death) barely made a ripple in the ratings before being shuffled off of Fridays to fill in random gaps in the schedule before cancellation. Dollhouse performed so poorly, so quickly, that Fox was compelled to issue notice that it would air all the produced episodes to quell fan anxiety that the show would be pulled off the schedule early.

ABC’s Ugly Betty, after poor ratings the previous season, was put on Friday to live out its last year before syndication, and cratered in the ratings, before being moved to plug another hole at 10pm Wednesday prior to cancellation. NBC’s Law & Order also did terribly on Friday’s, then was moved to Monday at 10pm after the Lenopocalypse where cancellation would likely follow if it wasn’t about to break the longevity record (as well as being on desperate NBC).

Even CBS, which could point to its Friday dramas with a bit of pride suffered ratings losses far in excess of the rest of its schedule. Ghost Whisperer down 21%, Medium down 25% (vs. Monday on NBC), Numb3rs down 24%. That pride got a lot more expensive this year.

Smallville’s 29% fall (compared with Thursday) looks similarly bad, but compared to the rest of the CW schedule it held up rather well. That’s less a positive for Smallville than a negative vs. the rest of CW’s schedule.

Because of the record this past season, I’d look for NBC, ABC and Fox to go all unscripted on Friday’s next season. I’d still expect CBS to go with 3 hours of scripted shows next fall, but I’m not sure how much longer that will happen. I’d expect the CW to keep Smallville on Friday’s, but I would not expect them to replace the ANTM repeat with a scripted show because of the expense to the network.