Screwed by the Network/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A show is moved into a less savory time-slot.

  • Straight: New episodes of Trope-TV's sitcom Alice and Bob is moved to Friday Night 8PM, with barely any announcements.
  • Exaggerated: New episodes of Trope-TV's Alice and Bob (and the only primetime airing of the first episode) are aired early Tuesday mornings at 4:30 AM, between a test pattern and an informercial -- and it *still* doesn't get any advertising
  • Downplayed: Alice and Bob still gets advertised, despite its constant timeslot changes.
  • Justified: Alice and Bob is a critical and ratings disaster, so the network decides to move the show to a time when hardly anyone will watch it and burn off the leftover episodes that they don't want to air at its normal time.
  • Inverted: Adored by the Network
  • Subverted: Despite the move to the Friday Night Death Slot, the show's ratings are going strong...
  • Double Subverted: ...then its ratings plummet due to outside forces and is the first one on the chopping block during cancellation time.
    • Or while the ratings are relatively strong for the timeslot, they aren't strong enough to keep the show on the air.
  • Zig Zagged: Alice and Bob move all over the schedule and get killed in the ratings due to viewers not bothering to find out when it comes on.
  • Averted: Alice and Bob stay at their regular timeslot.
  • Enforced': Moral Guardians and the network censors have issues with Alice and Bobs risque humor and adult content, so they have to move it to a post-watershed timeslot.
  • Lampshaded: "GUYS, THE NETWORK JUST MOVED ALICE AND BOB TO FRIDAY NIGHTS! FUCK THEM!"
  • Discussed: "Can you believe how the network treated Alice and Bob? That show was pratically too good for them!"