The season to some that almost killed the network in the mid 90s. Bad enough losing the NFL the year prior, aging shows, lack of new hits to complete, and ownership being in flux. They decided to chase a younger demographic and the results were terrible to say the least. Im curious enough to see what I could do to help a confusing mess of a schedule CBS give it viewers in 1995. Before I start why the hell move a top 10 show the pervious year like Murder She Wrote on Thursdays against Must See Tv!?

Ok no rules just good all around fun

CBS Saturday Night
800pm - Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman
900pm - Touched by an Angel
1000pm - Walker, Texas Ranger

CBS Sunday Night
700pm - 60 Minutes
800pm - Murder, She Wrote
900pm - CBS Sunday Movie

CBS Monday Night
800pm - The Nanny
830pm - Cybill
900pm - Murphy Brown
930pm - Almost Perfect
1000pm - Chicago Hope

CBS Tuesday Night
800pm - Can't Hurry Love
830pm - If Not For You
900pm - Central Park West
1000pm - The Client

CBS Wednesday Night
800pm - Dave's World
830pm - Bless This House
900pm - Empty Nest
930pm - Bonnie
1000pm - Picket Fences

CBS Thursday Night
800pm - CBS Thursday Night Movie
1000pm - 48 Hours

CBS Friday Night
800pm - Recuse 911
900pm - Diagnosis: Murder
1000pm - Nash Bridges


Real schedule below to compare



CBS Saturday Night
800pm - Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman
900pm - Touched by an Angel
1000pm - Walker, Texas Ranger

CBS Sunday Night
700pm - 60 Minutes
800pm - Cybill
830pm - Almost Perfect
900pm - CBS Sunday Movie

CBS Monday Night
800pm - The Nanny
830pm - Can't Hurry Love
900pm - Murphy Brown
930pm - If Not For You
1000pm - Chicago Hope

CBS Tuesday Night
800pm - The Client
900pm - CBS Tuesday Movie

CBS Wednesday Night
800pm - Bless This Home
830pm - Dave's World
900pm - Central Park West
1000pm - Courthouse

CBS Thursday Night
800pm - Murder, She Wrote
900pm - New York News
1000pm - 48 Hours

CBS Friday Night
800pm - Dweebs
830pm - Bonnie
900pm - Picket Fences
1000pm - American Gothic

That's a nice attempt to reorganize a bad schedule but there are a couple of things you should know in case you want to try again to improve it some more.

1. "Empty Nest" (9 pm Wed.) was from NBC and it had been cancelled the previous summer. I don't remember CBS making an attempt to bring the show to their network although it might have better for them if they did.

2. It also helps to know what the competition might be planning to do for each night and think of some good counterprogramming to try and beat it. For example, 1995 was the height of Must See TV Thursdays on NBC. Nothing you could think of was going to beat "Friends" at 8 or "Seinfeld" at 9 so you might want to put some of your weaker shows on there and then try to strengthen the rest of the week. It was also when ABC had their hideous TGIF shows on so a couple of good drama series like the ones you chose would be a good fit there.


To help you out a little more, I have the full schedule for you from Wikipedia:

1995-96 Fall TV Schedule - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995%E2%80%9396_United_States_network_television_schedule)

That's a nice attempt to reorganize a bad schedule but there are a couple of things you should know in case you want to try again to improve it some more.

1. "Empty Nest" (9 pm Wed.) was from NBC and it had been cancelled the previous summer. I don't remember CBS making an attempt to bring the show to their network although it might have better for them if they did.

2. It also helps to know what the competition might be planning to do for each night and think of some good counterprogramming to try and beat it. For example, 1995 was the height of Must See TV Thursdays on NBC. Nothing you could think of was going to beat "Friends" at 8 or "Seinfeld" at 9 so you might want to put some of your weaker shows on there and then try to strengthen the rest of the week. It was also when ABC had their hideous TGIF shows on so a couple of good drama series like the ones you chose would be a good fit there.


To help you out a little more, I have the full schedule for you from Wikipedia:

1995-96 Fall TV Schedule - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995%E2%80%9396_United_States_network_television_schedule)
Thanks for the tips I'm really into reorganizing schedules for some odd reason. As far as Empty Nest I knew it was canceled by NBC earlier in the summer, CBS didn't pick up a lot of sitcoms that year and thought an established show like that would help strengthen the Wednesday comedy block.

I do use wiki as a reference for the schedule, looking up the newer unknown shows, checking out the competition, etc. Without wiki post like this wouldn't be possible for me.

Why choose Empty Nest for your fantasy schedule? EN had a nice finale the previous April, and its last season sank to the bottom of the Nielsen Rankings (#118)? If I was a CBS executive, there wouldn't be any need for me to steal a concluded (not cancelled) show from another network for any reason. Suggestions like that make me want to say "Pick something else, please!". A different established show; nothing past its fourth season.

One question that I have to ask Jeribear95 is, How long would Empty Nest would have lasted on CBS under that scenario? If I had my own counter-suggestion, I think it would have made more sense for CBS to have picked up Nurses (a spin-off of Empty Nest) for 1994-95 after that one was cancelled by NBC.

Also, as good it would be to see Murder, She Wrote remain in its longtime Sunday slot for its 12th season instead of getting buried against Friends on Thursdays, Angela Lansbury would have likely wanted to move on from MSW at that point regardless, and CBS is still going to want Touched By an Angel on that Sunday-at-8-pm hour for 1996-97. MSW remaining on Sundays at 8 would have meant it still finishing in the Nielsen Top-20 (I think the mid-to-lower teens) for 1995-96.

Not a Dweebs fan? I never even knew about this show in 1995, let alone seen you, but I've watched what little there is of it on YouTube recently, and I think it's entertaining. Maybe CBS should've hung in longer with this show. It definitely would've been better than bringing the tired Empty Nest over from NBC.

Also, Picket Fences had long boned the fish by this time. It was such a horrible mess compared to how great it had been a few years earlier. Was there another drama from the previous year that could've been renewed, or a promising pilot that could've gone forward?

I am glad Murder, She Wrote moved. Otherwise Touched by an Angel might have never gotten a chance to thrive on Sundays. Murder, She Wrote still had a nice long run of 12 seasons and 264 episodes.

Why choose Empty Nest for your fantasy schedule? EN had a nice finale the previous April, and its last season sank to the bottom of the Nielsen Rankings (#118)? If I was a CBS executive, there wouldn't be any need for me to steal a concluded (not cancelled) show from another network for any reason. Suggestions like that make me want to say "Pick something else, please!". A different established show; nothing past its fourth season.

One question that I have to ask Jeribear95 is, How long would Empty Nest would have lasted on CBS under that scenario? If I had my own counter-suggestion, I think it would have made more sense for CBS to have picked up Nurses (a spin-off of Empty Nest) for 1994-95 after that one was cancelled by NBC.

Also, as good it would be to see Murder, She Wrote remain in its longtime Sunday slot for its 12th season instead of getting buried against Friends on Thursdays, Angela Lansbury would have likely wanted to move on from MSW at that point regardless, and CBS is still going to want Touched By an Angel on that Sunday-at-8-pm hour for 1996-97. MSW remaining on Sundays at 8 would have meant it still finishing in the Nielsen Top-20 (I think the mid-to-lower teens) for 1995-96.

When it comes to Empty Nest I couldn't find another sitcom that was cancelled the previous year that would fit with that night and CBS didn't pick up many sitcoms that year to switch up with. Nest honestly was an one season pick up to complete the comedy block. You're absolutely right about nurses as I forgot about that show.

Murder however even if Angela wanted to leave would've atleast ended on a better note than being buried on Thursday, plus help CBS win the night again in the ratings department even if it were to decline a bit. In a scenario if Angela would wanted to stay a good idea to me is switching the timeslots with Touched by an angel the next season if Murder declines a bit as a solid sendoff and let Angel establish itself on Sunday.

Not a Dweebs fan? I never even knew about this show in 1995, let alone seen you, but I've watched what little there is of it on YouTube recently, and I think it's entertaining. Maybe CBS should've hung in longer with this show. It definitely would've been better than bringing the tired Empty Nest over from NBC.

Also, Picket Fences had long boned the fish by this time. It was such a horrible mess compared to how great it had been a few years earlier. Was there another drama from the previous year that could've been renewed, or a promising pilot that could've gone forward?


I watched a little of Dweebs on YouTube years ago and I don't think it fit with the CBS audience and was ahead of its time, the show would've fit better on FOX or even NBC


They had other dramas but reading into them I didnt like them on this schedule and picket was an establish show so chalk it up to laziness, typical network scheduling nowadays arent im right

When it comes to Empty Nest I couldn't find another sitcom that was cancelled the previous year that would fit with that night and CBS didn't pick up many sitcoms that year to switch up with. Nest honestly was an one season pick up to complete the comedy block. You're absolutely right about nurses as I forgot about that show.

Murder however even if Angela wanted to leave would've atleast ended on a better note than being buried on Thursday, plus help CBS win the night again in the ratings department even if it were to decline a bit. In a scenario if Angela would wanted to stay a good idea to me is switching the timeslots with Touched by an angel the next season if Murder declines a bit as a solid sendoff and let Angel establish itself on Sunday.

Regardless, your suggestion of CBS picking-up Empty Nest would be putting it in the exact same situation as the final seasons of Diff'rent Strokes and 7th Heaven (the latter had two proper series finales), and a possible repeat of The Golden Palace (the continuation of NBC's The Golden Girls, which EN spun-off of), and I just don't want that. I wonder what CatsRule would think of it? I think this is more of a misunderstanding on your part because you missed-out on better options.

With me having thought this over, how about CBS picking-up Phenom in 1994? That would be another great option. Phenom was a one-season sitcom that aired on ABC in 1993-94, and it ranked at #25. Its (inexcusable) cancellation was because ABC wanted to get-out of producing sitcoms that skewed towards a family audience. Under that scenario, I would move Dave's World an hour later to 9:00 and place Phenom at 8:00. If not that, then how about a pilot CBS never picked-up in real life? A crazy option I would've saw you coming-up with would be Cosby or Everybody Loves Raymond debuting a year earlier.

If there had been an offer from CBS to pick-up Empty Nest in 1995, EN's producers would've turned it down, and even as the third-place network, CBS wouldn't have saw much value in a show that ranked below #100, anyway. CBS was desperate for younger viewers during that time, also, and I don't care how bat a fit Dweebs would've been for the network. If CBS wanted to put Dweebs in an anchor slot, they would. On the statement of Dweebs not fitting-in with the CBS audience: The cancellations of Square Pegs and 2 Broke Girls proves the point that CBS doesn't like its shows skewing too young (but that's a topic that's best saved for another thread).

Also, any passing of the torch from Murder, She Wrote to Touched by an Angel wouldn't have been guaranteed if Angela Lansbury decided to continue MSW, even if a continuation for Season 13 meant a ratings decline similar to its real-life move to Thursdays. Any network would be devastated if their top scripted show came to an end. The rising ratings of TbaA would soften that blow for CBS, along with them picking up JAG from NBC (yeah, JAG was terribly-rated, too, but at least that one ran for just one season on NBC). Even though the "Death by Demographics" finale would still happen (and only because I don't think MSW would be the kind of show with a too-flashy or extended-length series finale), there would still be the occasional Murder She Wrote TV movie every now and then.

I loved Phenom. That was a great show that should’ve went on for years!

No love for Dweebs? Dweebs was Big Bang Theory before Big Bang Theory. I think I watched it once or twice because of Farrah Forke.

No love for Dweebs? Dweebs was Big Bang Theory before Big Bang Theory. I think I watched it once or twice because of Farrah Forke.

I wouldve loved it on FOX or Must See TV after Friends, CBS at that time not so much

Farrah Forke is a terrible actress who did not gel at all with the rest of the Wings cast. No wonder Dweebs failed.

When it comes to Empty Nest I couldn't find another sitcom that was cancelled the previous year that would fit with that night and CBS didn't pick up many sitcoms that year to switch up with. Nest honestly was an one season pick up to complete the comedy block. You're absolutely right about nurses as I forgot about that show.

Murder however even if Angela wanted to leave would've atleast ended on a better note than being buried on Thursday, plus help CBS win the night again in the ratings department even if it were to decline a bit. In a scenario if Angela would wanted to stay a good idea to me is switching the timeslots with Touched by an angel the next season if Murder declines a bit as a solid sendoff and let Angel establish itself on Sunday.

I would've renewed Hearts Afire or given Women of the House a full season. Preferably renew Hearts Afire. Although Hearts Afire was retooled in season two into an Evening Shade clone, Evening Shade was gone in '95 and HA was coming into it's own.

Empty Nest just doesn't seem CBS compatible as they never were really associated with Witt-Thomas-Harris shows like ABC and later NBC did. CBS had the continuation of Golden Girls: Golden Palace and that failed.