I know, I know, what is there to possibly watch on Fridays? But in the past couple of years, the networks have been making a valid attempt to bring back Friday night television, which (believe it or not) was hot at one time. Here's what you have for options if you opt to stay in on Fridays.
FRIDAYS:
8:00-9:00
CSI: NY (CBS, premieres 9/28), Whitney/Community (NBC, 10/19), Kitchen Nightmares (Fox, 9/28-10/19), Touch (Fox, 10/26), Shark Tank (ABC, 9/14-10/26), Last Man Standing/Malibu Country (ABC, 11/2), America's Next Top Model (The CW, 10/19)
9:00-10:00
Made in Jersey (CBS, 9/28), Grimm (NBC, 9/21), Fringe (Fox, 9/28), Primetime: What Would You Do? (ABC, 9/14), Nikita (The CW, 10/19)
10:00-11:00
Blue Bloods (CBS, 9/28), Dateline (NBC, 9/28), 20/20 (ABC, 9/14)
The 8:00 hour is probably the most interesting hour of the night. CBS moved their modest hit CSI:NY to Fridays this fall, so we'll have to see if audiences care to follow. If not, they have a variety of other choices. NBC has a comedy hour featuring their worst comedy (Whitney) and their (second) best (Community, sorry, but Parks and Rec is definitely the best NBC comedy). Weird choice? Definitely. Will they succeed? Well, at least Community has a passionate fan base. If any show has a chance of making it on Fridays, it's Community. I'm still confused how Whitney made it past three episodes. Fox and ABC are premiering two reality shows for the start of the season, only to replace them with scripted material by late October/early November. The reason? For Fox, October means World Series, so alot of their shows are pre-empted by games for the majority of the month. Of course, some shows stay on the whole month, others take a break. Fridays are a popular night for games, so Fox and ABC are putting on these reality shows which don't have a particular structure (they aren't competition series) so if games air on Friday, it won't be a big deal. After that, Fox is bringing back last season's midseason sci-fi experiment Touch, which had some potential, and ABC looks to relaunch it's Friday comedy night with the Tim Allen comedy Last Man Standing and the new Reba McEntire comedy Malibu Country. Neither may be of great quality, but they have big names and are more family oriented than...say...Whitney/Community. Finally, The CW moved one of it's biggest titles, America's Next Top Model, to Fridays, probably to boost all around ratings. CBS will probably win the hour.
The 9:00 hour is full of question marks. Nikita was a good performer for The CW last year yet still faced cancellation possibilities. It's back with a pretty dull timeslot, but other shows like this have succeeded in the past on Friday nights. ABC is airing non-fiction material after their comedy block, which doesn't really make sense, but it's "no structure" structure might help. Fox somehow brought Fringe back for a final season, and the ratings will consist of fans and that's about it. This isn't the kind of show you can jump right into. NBC tried out Grimm on Mondays in August where the ratings were less than favorable, but it's returning to Friday nights in September where it found a whole lotta success. Finally, CBS is premiering Made in Jersey, an Ally McBeal wannabe. We'll see if the show catches on, considering it's not really in the vein of it's lead-in, CSI:NY. Because of CBS' power, I think Made in Jersey could win the timeslot, but if Grimm can find that audience again on Fridays, it could be a surprise winner.
Finally, the 10:00 hour is so boring it's...boring. NBC has Dateline which is...fine? ABC has 20/20 which sounds really...dull? The only scripted show, and the one that'll win the timeslot, is CBS' Friday night hit Blue Bloods.
Does any Friday programming looking appealing to you? Let me know in the comments section below!
Evan
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