The March 24, 1980 airing and March 31, 1980 airing. It clearly was a different time in TV history because I cannot see why this show was still ranked higher than Alice after everyone saw the first episode. The first episode I can understand because no one knew what to expect but for it to be ranked in top 5 again? And it was up against Monday Night Football and still generated high ratings. Flo was not more watchable than Alice even with Mel as a guest

Monday Night Football was long finished for the season by March. Flo was on right after MASH both weeks so that would explain most of the early success. March 24 was the final new episode of season 8 for MASH.

With respect to March 24, ABC was running the 1965 movie Doctor Zhivago (part 2) which of course had already been on TV. NBC was running the NCAA final in college basketball which obviously would appeal more to men than women so the competition was favorable for the new series. Incidentally as we can see by the rating the NCAA final wasn't a big deal in those days the game finished 25th, third in its timeslot.

With respect to March 31st, ABC had boxing, again male oriented programming and NBC was showing a repeat of part 2 Jesus of Nazareth, so conditions were very favorable for Flo.

Monday Night Football was long finished for the season by March. Flo was on right after MASH both weeks so that would explain most of the early success. March 24 was the final new episode of season 8 for MASH.

With respect to March 24, ABC was running the 1965 movie Doctor Zhivago (part 2) which of course had already been on TV. NBC was running the NCAA final in college basketball which obviously would appeal more to men than women so the competition was favorable for the new series. Incidentally as we can see by the rating the NCAA final wasn't a big deal in those days the game finished 25th, third in its timeslot.

With respect to March 31st, ABC had boxing, again male oriented programming and NBC was showing a repeat of part 2 Jesus of Nazareth, so conditions were very favorable for Flo.


Yeah what the hell was I thinking, it was spring time lol Thanks for pointing that out. Well looks like it was NBC and ABC movies so it wasnt much competition like next season when it went up against LHOP