Sometimes networks think they have an ace in the hole and move an established hit (or a promising newcomer) to a new timeslot in order to bolster their ratings on a weaker night. Sometimes this resulted in said show losing so many viewers that the show is canceled or put back in the old timeslot. What examples of this can you come up with? One of my fave bonehead moves was when ABC moved Laverne & Shirley from its very established Tuesday timeslot to a Thursday timeslot, only to see the show's ratings go from #1 to out of the top 30 (1979, fall). Eventually ABC put the show back, but it never really regained its ratings powerhouse status (storyline changes may have helped in that regard as well).

Off the top of my head, I remember FOX moved Married with Children to Saturday nights which didnt last long before moving back to Sunday.

Equally bad is when a Network preempts a Show for several weeks at a time for "Special" Programming. An example is the final season of the original Hawaii Five-O. In 1980 CBS Preempted the series for up to one month at a time, prompting many viewers to believe the show was already cancelled. By the time this show returned, its viewers had moved on to other Programs, sealing this shows fate.

When they tried to recreate TGIF on ABC and moved 8 Simple Rules to Friday nights.

Mork & Mindy took a swan dive in the ratings when ABC moved it from Thursdays to Sundays in the fall of 1979.

ABC killed Mr. Belvedere when they moved it to Saturday nights in 1989.

Too many to count, but here are a few I can think of:

'My Three Sons' got moved to Mondays at 10 during its final season.

The same season that 'Laverne and Shirley' and 'Mork and Mindy' got moved around, 'Angie' got bounced all over the place and ended up being cancelled.

'Alice' was moved from Sunday to Wednesday in 1982, and almost got cancelled.

'Bewitched' moved from Thursday to Wednesday to Saturday during its final season.

FOX moved "Boston Public" from Monday night to Friday night and that killed the series.

NBC used to move "Newsradio" around it's schedule a lot, almost to the point it was difficult to find it on the schedule at all.

When they tried to recreate TGIF on ABC and moved 8 Simple Rules to Friday nights.

I honestly believe that ABC intentionally did this to justify canceling it since they really didn't have it in their hearts to do it when John Ritter suddenly died.

The TV Tropes website has a whole page on this called "Screwed by the Network". NBC moving the original Star Trek to Fridays for its final season is a prime example of this.

FOX moved "Boston Public" from Monday night to Friday night and that killed the series.

NBC used to move "Newsradio" around it's schedule a lot, almost to the point it was difficult to find it on the schedule at all.

Incidentally, the same sort of thing happened w/ WKRP in Cincinnati on CBS a decade prior.

Wasn't Fringe actually doing decent for Fox, when they decided to move it to another night, therefore killing the momentum it had. Sort of the same with The O.C.

When CBS moved Touched by An Angel from Sunday nights to Saturday nights. It limped for a couple of more seasons after that then it got cancelled.

Fox moved Terminator: TSCC from Monday nights where it was doing okay to their Friday night death slot, which pretty much killed it.

When CBS moved Touched by An Angel from Sunday nights to Saturday nights. It limped for a couple of more seasons after that then it got cancelled.

that's a good one. I forgot about that one.

CBS moving Murder She Wrote from Sunday to Thursday was I guess their subtle way of murdering Jessica Fletcher.

Some of these moves listed above (8 Simple Rules, My Three Sons, Bewitched, Mr. Belvedere, Murder She Wrote) were made because those shows were faltering where they were and nearing the ends of their runs. The timeslot change may have hastened the demise in some cases but the writing was on the wall.

Equally bad is when a Network preempts a Show for several weeks at a time for "Special" Programming. An example is the final season of the original Hawaii Five-O. In 1980 CBS Preempted the series for up to one month at a time, prompting many viewers to believe the show was already cancelled. By the time this show returned, its viewers had moved on to other Programs, sealing this shows fate.

Hawaii Five-O already had a hard time going into the 1979-80 season
with James MacArthur gone and only Jack Lord remaining from the original
cast.

My Sister Sam was in the top 25 when it aired on Mondays its first season. It was canceled its second season when CBS moved it to Saturdays.

CBS moving Murder She Wrote from Sunday to Thursday was I guess their subtle way of murdering Jessica Fletcher.
And star-then executive producer-Angela Lansbury did NOT like it one bit.And another boneheaded network decision-this time ABC-and the 1963-1965 series the original black and white science-fiction series The Outer Limits.In this case,ABC moved it from a pretty comfy Monday Night first season slot,to a doom slot second season slot on Saturday Night ,against CBS' ratings powerhouse The Jackie Gleason Show .

CBS moving "Designing Women" from Monday to Friday's in 1992 was one of the final straws that broke that particular camels back. That and the fact it never recovered from the exits of Delta Burke or Jean Smart.

And star-then executive producer-Angela Lansbury did NOT like it one bit.And another boneheaded network decision-this time ABC-and the 1963-1965 series the original black and white science-fiction series The Outer Limits.In this case,ABC moved it from a pretty comfy Monday Night first season slot,to a doom slot second season slot on Saturday Night ,against CBS' ratings powerhouse The Jackie Gleason Show .

Then again, apparently, even had CBS not moved Murder She Wrote it likely would've ended soon anyway. Angela Lansbury had just turned 70 and was reportedly getting tired of the daily grind of a weekly television series. MSW experimented by having Jessica Fletcher in most episodes, simply introduce and close out (in bookend segments) the episodes that were apparently based on her novels.

^I'm sure this was a way to try and introduce some backdoor pilots for possible spinoffs...

CBS moving "Designing Women" from Monday to Friday's in 1992 was one of the final straws that broke that particular camels back. That and the fact it never recovered from the exits of Delta Burke or Jean Smart.

Speaking of 'Designing Women', during its first season it got moved from Monday to Thursday to Sunday and then back to Monday, and almost got lost in the shuffle because nobody could find it on the schedule. Luckily it survived.

Speaking of 'Designing Women', during its first season it got moved from Monday to Thursday to Sunday and then back to Monday, and almost got lost in the shuffle because nobody could find it on the schedule. Luckily it survived.

I believe that CBS almost cancelled it but a viewer campaign organized by Viewers for Quality TV helped to save it.

Sledge Hammer! which never stood much of a chance on its initial Friday timeslot due to ABC airing it regularly against CBS's Dallas and NBC's Miami Vice in its 1st season.

When ABC made another one of their classic bonehead moves in its 2nd season where they moved Sledge to the death trap spot on Thursdays against The Cosby Show (which at that time was the #1 show on TV), it was a death knell and ABC canned it midway thorugh its 2nd season.

ABC also moved both Growing Pains and Who's the Boss? from their Tuesday and Wednesday Night timeslots respectively to Saturday Nights in the 1991-92 TV season where they got pummeled by NBC's Miami Hurricane sitcoms in The Golden Girls (which was on its way out in its own right), Empty Nest and newcomer Nurses.

About Mork & Mindy's 2nd season: THIS is one of the textbook examples of how to turn a Top 10 Show into a bottom of the barrel show. To make matters worse, it got pummeled against a returning Archie Bunker of all shows.

Hardcastle & McCormick originally aired on Sundays before the ABC Sunday Night Movies in its 1st season where it beat the 2nd season of Knight Rider in the ratings before it took nosedive in its 2nd season when they changed the theme song from "Drive" to "Back to Back" (before they reverted back to "Drive" a few episodes into the 2nd half of its 2nd season) and midway changed its timeslot from Sundays to Mondays where it aired with ABC's Monday Night Movies. The theme song switching plus the change from Sundays to Mondays hurt its ratings.

I think of all the Big 4 networks, ABC is the worst network at this, IMO.

Yeah, that's why I quit watching Growing Pains. I liked it at the time. But, I was big into Golden Girls and Empty Nest. And, so was my mom. So, we kept it on NBC on Saturday Nights.

The networks should just say "We are moving this show because basically its going to go off the air soon".

How about that Sat. night lineup back in the old days? Empty Nest, The Golden Girls, Who's the Boss AND Growing Pains!! Now, Saturday night is literally a ghost town!!

30 Rock's move to 8 PM this year against The Big Bang Theory pretty much destroyed its ratings.

Same with Cougar Town's move to Tuesdays following Last Man Standing, a show it has nothing in common with.

After years of dominating the Wednesday at 10 PM slot, NBC moved Law & Order around to Monday, and then Friday, before it finally bit the dust following the 2009-10 season.

Equally bad is when a Network preempts a Show for several weeks at a time for "Special" Programming. An example is the final season of the original Hawaii Five-O. In 1980 CBS Preempted the series for up to one month at a time, prompting many viewers to believe the show was already cancelled. By the time this show returned, its viewers had moved on to other Programs, sealing this shows fate.

Actually that season was the last season for Hawaii Five-O so it was not cancelled. Jack Lord chose to end the show after the 12th season CBS had nothing to do with ending the show.

When ABC moved The Partridge Family from Friday to the death slot on Saturdays opposite All In The Family in 1973.

As for game shows:

When CBS moved Press Your Luck from its 9:30AM timeslot against NBC's Sale of the Century to the late afternoon timeslot of 3PM (which replaced Mark Goodson's Body Language) to make way for the return of Card Sharks, PYL was done for in September of 1986.

Even when NBC moved Sale of the Century from its 9:30AM timeslot to 9AM against a waning $25,000 Pyramid, Sale still did reasonably well, even with the bonus round change from Winner's Board to the Winner's Big Money Game. But that glory wouldn't last very long once CBS returned Family Feud back to the air on July 4, 1988. The timeslot change, sagging ratings plus NBC's game show purging did in Sale in 1989.

I got another one:

AfterM*A*S*H - in its 1st season, it surprisingly finished out in the Top 10 shows during its initial Monday timeslot (the same timeslot as M*A*S*H).

When a promo for Season 2 came for their move from Mondays to Tuesdays, where they made a mockery of cutting Mr. T's signature mohawk and their claim that they'll beat Mr. T and The A-Team in the ratings, the joke ended up being on AfterM*A*S*H. Not only did Mr. T and The A-Team pummeled AfterM*A*S*H and E/R (for that matter), but AfterM*A*S*H ended up getting canned 9 episodes into the 2nd season and cemented its place as one of the worst shows in TV history.