Friday Night Death Slot: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:fridaynightdeathslot.png|frame]]
The infamous
Basically, the idea is this: people - most especially certain demographics, such as the 18-34s who are highly coveted by networks and advertisers - don't watch as much TV on Fridays, mostly because they like to go out to bars, see movies, etc., and just basically blow off a little steam after work/class. Scheduling a show on a Friday - especially early in the evening, such as 8 PM Eastern - is practically the kiss of death.
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The ''good'' news for shows on Friday is that due to lower expectations, shows can get away with ratings that would get them cancelled on any other weekday. The ''bad'' news for shows on Friday is that even with those lower expectations, shows often don't reach them, causing Friday shows to have a high turnover rate.
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
It also has to do with the concept of vertical integration, where television networks who used to not care about whatever movies were playing at theaters during the weekend now must advertise those films on Thursday nights because they're now owned by large media companies with film studios. All six major American networks have studio relationships;
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* ''Terminator: [[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'': 2007-8 season: on Monday nights. 2008-9 season: moved to Friday nights. 2009-10 season: Terminated.
* The US version of the [[Game Show]] ''[[Duel (TV series)|Duel]]'' was originally a series of specials that ran on weekdays during prime time (similar to the initial run of ''[[Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?]]?'') with a finale on a Sunday night. Its second season ran on Friday nights at 8:00 PM. The ratings numbers '''halved''', and ABC canceled it.
* ''[[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
* [[Mike Judge]]'s political correctness satire ''[[The Goode Family]]'' received this dubious honor.
* 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]].)
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** On the other hand, ''[[Gundam Seed]]'' played this trope straight when it got shoved to a super-late/early morning Friday/Saturday slot following poor ratings on [[Toonami]]. In exchange, however, the death slot version had fewer edits, with the final two episodes being nearly uncut.
* ''[[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
* As of Season 2 in September, ''[[Nikita (TV series)|Nikita]]'' will be in this slot on The CW. It seems to have done well for itself regardless of poor ratings last season, having had a larger episode order and huge fanbase. However, some fans view it as a death sentence.
* Inverted with ''[[Transformers Prime]]''. The show started its run in the death slot, but was taken out of it and moved to Saturdays. It seems to be thriving now.
* The second season of [[The Mole (TV series)|The Mole]] not only got the
* ''[[Extreme Makeover: Home Edition]]'', after eight seasons was moved to Fridays, and was canceled at its next season finale.
* ''[[ANT 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.
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