Friday Night Death Slot: Difference between revisions

''Especially'' if the show is neither family friendly (folks with kids ostensibly stay home on the weekend more often), nor a show that already has much of an audience. And really, ''really'' especially if it's on Fox. Or produced by [[Tim Minear]]. Or [[Department of Redundancy Department|on FoxFOX]].

Fridays are thus often reserved for mid-level half-hour sitcoms (see: [[The WB]]'s lineup of Fridays past as well as ABC's old TGIF lineup in the 90s, though this has declined), reruns, movie airings, shows that the network has absolutely no faith in, or love for (see: [[Screwed by the Network]]), and, in modern times, a lot of [[Reality Show|Reality Shows]]s. Also, compounding this is the fact that Fridays are more likely to have regular shows preempted for things like sporting events on the lower-tier networks and independent affiliates. Sometimes a network will fill time by airing a [[No Hoper Repeat]] of a popular show from a different night.

* [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] - Owned by [[Disney]]

* [[FoxFOX]] - Network owner News Corporation also ownsowned [[Twentieth Century Fox|20th CenturyFox]] and sister network [[My Network TV]]; much of Fox TV was sold to Disney in late 2017.

Some networks and shows manage to find a surprising amount of success on Fridays, ranging from [[CBS]]'s ''[[Ghost Whisperer]]'' to [[NBC]]'s successful move of ''[[Las Vegas]]'' from Monday nights. ''GW'' is somewhat family-friendly and ''Vegas'' had a large, dependable fanbase, a mostly comedic style, and a lot of celebrity guest appearances along with the preexisting tendency to re-air it on Fridays anyway, so these aren't all ''that'' surprising, but fans of the shows certainly breathed a sigh of relief when they survived to be renewed. In addition, [[CBS]] in its history had numerous series that got great ratings for Friday, the lineup of ''[[The Incredible Hulk]]'', ''[[The Dukes of Hazzard]]'' and ''[[Dallas]]'' in the late 1970s and early 1980s are the major example. (Meanwhile, Saturday nights, which is an even ''more'' iffy time for TV programming at present, were practically CBS's bread and butter in the '70s, thanks to a lineup that included shows like ''[[All in The Family]]'', ''[[M*A*S*H (television)|MashM*A*S*H]]'', ''[[The Mary Tyler Moore Show]]'', ''[[The Bob Newhart Show]]'', and ''The Carol Burnett Show''.) [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]'s ''TGIF'' block in [[The Nineties]], with such shows as ''[[Family Matters]]'', ''[[Boy Meets World]]'', and ''[[Sabrina the Teenage Witch (TV series)|Sabrina the Teenage Witch]]'', was perhaps the most spectacular subversion of this, as it not only turned the entirety of Friday night into a moneymaker for the network, but also one of its few success stories in what was otherwise a bad decade for the network.

More common and less surprising is the fact that Friday lineups do much better on cable. Such as [[Adult Swim]]'s Friday lineup, [[USA Network]]'s airing of ''[[Monk]]'' and ''[[Psych]]'' on Fridays, or more impressively, [[Sci Fi]] Channel's [[Sci Fi]] Friday lineup, which they claim is one of their "biggest" nights as far as ratings go; both the ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' and ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' TV series met with great success in this lineup, as did the imported new ''[[Doctor Who]]'' series, the 2000's[[Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)|2004 version of ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'']], and even the surprisingly successful re-airing of ''[[Firefly]]'' in 2005, which managed to be their second-highest rated series during [[November Sweeps]] of that year, despite its easy availability on DVD. (That is, it ''was'' their biggest night, before they separated ''SG-1'' and ''Galactica'', canceled the former, moved the latter to Sundays, pretty much gave ''[[Doctor Who]]'' away to [[The BBC|BBC America]], and generally built up more animosity towards the channel than had existed towards them whenafter they canceled ''[[Farscape]]''. And then back again, since ''[[Eureka]]'' is{{when}} their most-watched show.)

* The [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] [[Game Show]] ''[[The NamesName's the Same]]'' held a 7:30 Monday slot since it was [[Uncanceled]] in October 1954. It moved on June 28, 1955 (after its ''third'' host change in less than a year) to Tuesdays at 10:00, then on September 16 shifted to Fridays at 10:00. The series was canned on October 7, after just '''four''' episodes at that slot.

* Though a number of factors combined to kill it in just 14 episodes (only 11 of which were ever actually aired, in the wrong order), part of the reason ''Firefly'' got canceled by Fox was because it was in the 8 PM (Eastern) Friday slot, failing to attract the more adult audience at which it was aimed and being constantly preempted by sports broadcasts to boot. Its success in the 7 PM Friday slot on cable years later is usually considered ironic. Creator [[Joss Whedon]] now reportedly refuses to work with the network ever again precisely because of how badly they burned him with ''Firefly''. Of course, producer Tim Minear didn't even ''allegedly'' vow such a thing, but in light of other shows of his that have aired on the network including the next listing, probably should have.

** A decade before the Browncoat got screwed, there was ''[[Alien Nation (TV series)|Alien Nation]]''. Same network, same story, and roughly the same outcome...though their movies were of the Made For TV variety.

* ''[[Two Guys, a Girl And A Pizza Place]]'' got this slot.

** However, unlike a lot of these examples, it wasn't moved to the spot because the network wanted to get rid of it. It was moved because it had proven to be quite popular in its Wednesday night slot and ABC thought the show's popularity would move with it and break the curse of the Friday night death slot. It didn't.

* ''[[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]] Friday Night [[WWE Smackdown|Smackdown]]'' was a very successful subversion to this trope, to such a point where episodes had bumpers bragging about how viewed their show is, and an advertising campaign talking about how they're "changing Friday nights". Unfortunately, they're not bragging quite as much these days, as a move to the moribund [[My Network TV]] has left Smackdown lucky to pull in a 1.8 rating, thus accomplishing what the [['''Friday Night Death Slot]]''' could not. The show was then moved to [[Sy FySyfy]].

* In the late 90s, a very well-acted, well-produced modern update of ''[[The Six Million Dollar Man]]'' debuted on CBS. The show was titled ''Now And Again'', and featured an intricate and tightly-woven running premise, stellar acting by Eric Close and Dennis Haysbert, Kim Chan as one of the most surreal sociopaths in TV history, and frequent cameos by the likes of John Goodman and Mick Foley. It was an intelligent, thought-provoking show, which downplayed the premise's gimmick in favor of more real, dramatic interactions between the major characters. ...but its timeslot was 10pm on Friday, and it faded away with little fanfare after one season (at least a third of which never actually aired on CBS, and would only surface years later in syndication on [[Sci Fi]]SciFi.)

* The TV version of ''Beauty and the Beast'' was an aversion for the first two seasons, then we got [[Executive Meddling]] and Linda Hamilton getting written out.

* ''[[The Adventures of Brisco County Jr]]'' creator Carlton Cuse (Executive Producer of [[Lost]]) specifically blames this for the show's demise.

** ''Brisco County'' was a weird example... the pilot movie was so popular, the network actually ordered additional episodes. Cuse blames the flawed ratings system for incorrectly counting the show's fans, and unfortunately since it aired in the era before DVD releases gave a better gauge of popularity, it couldn't be revived.

* In one of the biggest subversions of this trope (and therefore a pretty biting case of irony), [[The X-Files|the little show that debuted in the 9pm timeslot after ''Brisco'']] went on to enjoy some ''moderate'' success.

** During the three seasons it aired on Friday night, the pre-''X-Files'' timeslot became an elephants' graveyard of failed speculative fiction shows. The aforementioned ''Brisco County, [[VR .5]], [[Strange Luck]], [[M.A.N.T.I.S.|MANTIS]]'', and ''[[Sliders]]'' all floundered (only ''Sliders'' made it to a second season), baffling FOX execs and no doubt informing their future decisions on Friday night sci-fi shows.

*** After ''[[X Files]]'' got moved to a more prominent timeslot, the Friday slot of death got taken by ''[[The Lone Gunmen]]''... who got the usual treatment from FOX.

* After SNICK was re-vamped into "SNICK House", ''[[Ka BlamKaBlam!]]'' got removed from its saturdaySaturday night timeslot to fridayFriday at eight.

** ''[[iCarly]]'' provides an example of using Friday, when it aired most of the second half of Season 3 in that slot. Its popularity made it an aversion with high ratings. There was one minor failure though. You remember how at the top they explain how the movie studios don't want any competition for Friday? Nick forgot that a certain movie named ''[[Harry Potter and Thethe Deathly Hallows (novel)|Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows]]'' came out that day. They still got 5 million though.

* ''[[Fringe]]'' ([[FoxFOX]]) was bumped to Friday nights in its third season, after Christmas 2010 to make way for ''[[American Idol]]''. To the surprise of some people, it was still renewed for a full season afterwards.

* ''[[Degrassi]]'' has averted this. In season 10 in the U.S., it came on on Fridays at 10 pm.

* In 2011, former ''[[American Idol]]'' judge Kara DioGuardi premiered a new reality/competition series for aspiring songwriters on Monday nights, called ''Platinum Hit''. Midway through the series, amid low ratings and with little advance warning, Bravo threw in the towel -- andtowel—and moved the series to 8pm Fridays, where it quietly finished its run.

* The second season of [[The Mole (TV series)|The Mole]] not only got the [['''Friday Night Death Slot]]''', it aired only ''two weeks after 9/11'', a time when most people were decidedly not in the mood to watch a cutthroat reality show. Three episodes of bad ratings later, the show was put on hiatus by [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]], and didn't re-air until the following summer where it competed in its time slot against the first season of [[American Idol]]. Only due to good word of mouth and a loyal fan base was the show not completely crushed.

* ''[[ANTA.N.T. Farm]]'' has aired every new episode on a Friday including the pilot. As a result still became popular and pulled in good enough ratings to be renewed. However, all first-run television series targeted at preteens and young teenagers (whether they have a [[Periphery Demographic]] like ''iCarly'' or not), will generally receive better ratings on Friday or Saturday nights due to the lowered ratings standards for cable television and the fact that such shows target a younger audience than broadcast network shows, that would most likely be too young to date/go spend time with friends outside the home by themselves. Therefore the type of ratings that a tween series like this gets in a first-run airing would often get a series cancelled/put it in danger of cancellation on network television than it would on cable.