Friday night death slot
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
The term Friday night death slot refers to the belief that television shows broadcast on Friday nights in the United States have a better-than-average chance of being cancelled. In recent years, this has especially been true with regard to the Fox network. Boston Public, Wanda at Large, Firefly, Playing it Straight, Wonderfalls, John Doe and Dark Angel are all examples of Fox series that started on Friday nights and lasted only a few episodes; or which were moved to Friday nights, experienced a steep drop in ratings, and were cancelled.
The phrase is now used in regard to CBS as well: JAG has been cancelled after a 10-year run, and Joan of Arcadia, which had a successful freshman year in the 2003-2004 season was cancelled the following season.
A famous example of a television series brought to a premature death by moving it to Friday nights was the original Star Trek series, which aired on NBC. Producer Gene Roddenberry lost a fight with Laugh-In producer George Schlatter over the 7:30 PM Monday night time slot. Roddenberry said he had been promised the slot when the show was renewed, after fans deluged NBC with mail in protest.
That would have meant Laugh-In would have had to start a half-hour later, and Schlatter did not see why his show, a ratings smash, had to yield that time to the poorly-rated Star Trek, and made no secret of his displeasure. Roddenberry, who never forgave the network for this, made good on a threat to withdraw from personally producing the show, which when combined with the departure of others involved behind the scenes hastened its decline and ensured that there would be no fourth season.
Ironically, the next year NBC began using demographic breakdowns to decide which shows to air. NBC discovered that even in the 10 PM Friday slot, the show nevertheless attracted an audience segment advertisers would have found highly desirable, as it consisted mainly of married couples with lots of disposable income.
After cancellation, it went on to decades of syndication and has spawned four additional prime-time television series, an animated series and ten movies over the nearly 40 years since the first episode aired in 1966.
In an echo of what happened with the original Star Trek, the sequel series Star Trek: Enterprise was rescheduled from Wednesday to Friday nights on UPN for its fourth season (2004-2005), a move which preceded its cancellation in February of 2005.
Whether networks realize this, and to this day purposely move programs to justify cancelling programs they do not wish to continue airing, is the subject of much continuing debate and cynicism amongst fans of such programs.
It is likely, though not certain, that the underlying reason for this syndrome has to do with the fact that Friday night is the traditional "first night of the weekend", in the United States, and that many people who might otherwise watch television are out partaking in other forms of entertainment because they work a standard work week and need not be up early Saturday morning.
It should also be noted that some shows, such as Dallas, Miami Vice, Falcon Crest and The X Files, have been launched on Friday nights and become successful (although Fox later moved The X Files to Sunday nights). In the case of The X Files, its fanbase was increased by word of mouth through the nascent Internet chatrooms and fansites that were becoming popular in the early-to-mid 1990s.
