Oddest scheduling decisions you've ever seen a network do

[TMC]

Are there any shows/movies you've seen TV channels pair together that you thought were weird? Or wondered why a channel bothered marathoning a show/movie on a certain day? Or just any scheduling decisions mystify you?

[tlc38tlc38]

MeTV keeping "MASH" and "Hogan's Heroes" on at 7 and 10 since the beginning of time. This needs to change.

[BigManMike]

Originally Posted by tlc38tlc38

MeTV keeping "MASH" and "Hogan's Heroes" on at 7 and 10 since the beginning of time. This needs to change.

Amen to that!

[RetroGuy2000]

My examples are a little different. I don't get any Retro channels. But here are several scheduling mistakes from years past:

Fall 1954: On Monday nights at 7:30, DuMont scheduled nothing against ABC's Name's the Same, CBS's News, and NBC's Tony Martin Show. At 8:00, they scheduled the Ilona Massey Show against CBS' George Burns and NBC's Sid Caesar. What were they thinking?! They had a half-hour with a good lead-in (Captain Video) and weak competition, but chose to air nothing, while a half hour later, they scheduled a show that couldn't possibly win its timeslot, running it against the star power of CBS and NBC in full force.

Fall 1979: Instead of scheduling the Diff'rent Stokes spin-off The Facts of Life immediately after it, NBC executives schedule The Facts of Life on another night, against the hit shows Fantasy Island and The Incredible Hulk. What's more, they only order 13 episodes, not as a mid-season replacement, but to air across a complete season. As a result, the show comes in 76th place in the annual ratings. What did they expect!? Ratings dramatically improved when the show was moved to Friday nights after Diff'rent Strokes over the summer, proving the show could have an audience, given a decent timeslot.

Fall 1986: Fox schedules Joan Rivers' show at the same time as Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. Fox didn't have a schedule at all, and could have scheduled Rivers later at night, or earlier in the evening, since they literally had all timeslots available. Instead, they chose to go head-to-head against an established powerhouse... and failed miserably. Carson never spoke to Rivers again, a network executive committed suicide, and Fox soon had to cancel the show. One of the worst fiascos in TV history.

Fall 1998-2000: Fox moves Futurama around the schedule multiple times, rescheduling the program five times in three seasons. They also pre-empted the show with sports programming on a regular basis. As a result, viewers couldn't find the show, and ratings for Futurama began to sag. It's clear Fox executives didn't believe in the show, as they ordered on average only 14 episodes per season, and scheduled them across an entire year.

Fall 2000-2002: ABC begins running Who Wants to Be a Millionaire as much as four times per week. Viewers soon grew bored, and ABC's ratings plummeted.

Fall 2009: NBC schedules The Jay Leno Show five nights a week in Prime Time. There was no way a late-night talk show could bring in enough viewers to make this work. A complete disaster.

[Plater of Everything]

When Antenna TV aired Dear John weekdays at 6:30 am, I liked it though. I guess they thought it would bring in the 14-18 demographic, what with the show's immature sexual humor, and scheduling it at a time when most teenagers get up to get ready for school should have worked perfectly! Apparently it didn't, because 3 months later they removed it from that slot. It's a shame Antenna TV isn't more popular with my demographic.

[DeadlyToolTime]

Originally Posted by Plater of Everything

When Antenna TV aired Dear John weekdays at 6:30 am, I liked it though. I guess they thought it would bring in the 14-18 demographic, what with the show's immature sexual humor, and scheduling it at a time when most teenagers get up to get ready for school should have worked perfectly! Apparently it didn't, because 3 months later they removed it from that slot. It's a shame Antenna TV isn't more popular with my demographic.

I never got why Dear John isn't a bigger hit on Antenna TV. I remember watching back to back episodes at 3 in the morning, but didn't know it was on at 6:30am at one point in time.

[Regulus]

Originally Posted by RetroGuy2000

Fall 2000-2002:[/B] ABC begins running Who Wants to Be a Millionaire as much as four times per week. Viewers soon grew bored, and ABC's ratings plummeted.

What got me was four decent quality shows were cancelled to make room for these slots. Alas, this was only the beginning, more game shows moved in, followed by "reality" shows. Talk about a shark jump!

[RetroGuy2000]

Originally Posted by Regulus

What got me was four decent quality shows were cancelled to make room for these slots. Alas, this was only the beginning, more game shows moved in, followed by "reality" shows. Talk about a shark jump!

Exactly. I can't imagine what ABC's long-term goals were, when they made this decision. Couldn't they understand that by adding so many Millionaires, they were putting all their eggs in one basket?

Don't even get me started on the "reality" craze. I know it's a cost-saving measure, but we're talking about a major broadcast network; they shouldn't have to rely on "reality" shows, as their budgets and ratings are bigger than what most cable channels can pull in.

[Edward216]

Originally Posted by RetroGuy2000

My examples are a little different. I don't get any Retro channels. But here are several scheduling mistakes from years past:

Fall 1954: On Monday nights at 7:30, DuMont scheduled nothing against ABC's Name's the Same, CBS's News, and NBC's Tony Martin Show. At 8:00, they scheduled the Ilona Massey Show against CBS' George Burns and NBC's Sid Caesar. What were they thinking?! They had a half-hour with a good lead-in (Captain Video) and weak competition, but chose to air nothing, while a half hour later, they scheduled a show that couldn't possibly win its timeslot, running it against the star power of CBS and NBC in full force.

Fall 1979: Instead of scheduling the Diff'rent Stokes spin-off The Facts of Life immediately after it, NBC executives schedule The Facts of Life on another night, against the hit shows Fantasy Island and The Incredible Hulk. What's more, they only order 13 episodes, not as a mid-season replacement, but to air across a complete season. As a result, the show comes in 76th place in the annual ratings. What did they expect!? Ratings dramatically improved when the show was moved to Friday nights after Diff'rent Strokes over the summer, proving the show could have an audience, given a decent timeslot.

Fall 1986: Fox schedules Joan Rivers' show at the same time as Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. Fox didn't have a schedule at all, and could have scheduled Rivers later at night, or earlier in the evening, since they literally had all timeslots available. Instead, they chose to go head-to-head against an established powerhouse... and failed miserably. Carson never spoke to Rivers again, a network executive committed suicide, and Fox soon had to cancel the show. One of the worst fiascos in TV history.

Fall 1998-2000: Fox moves Futurama around the schedule multiple times, rescheduling the program five times in three seasons. They also pre-empted the show with sports programming on a regular basis. As a result, viewers couldn't find the show, and ratings for Futurama began to sag. It's clear Fox executives didn't believe in the show, as they ordered on average only 14 episodes per season, and scheduled them across an entire year.

Fall 2000-2002: ABC begins running Who Wants to Be a Millionaire as much as four times per week. Viewers soon grew bored, and ABC's ratings plummeted.

Fall 2009: NBC schedules The Jay Leno Show five nights a week in Prime Time. There was no way a late-night talk show could bring in enough viewers to make this work. A complete disaster.

I don't think it was just the schedule change that helped The Facts Of Life. It also helped that they gave the show something of an overhaul. Dropping several characters from the first season (There were simply too many). And then focusing on just the 4 characters of Blair, Tootie, Natalie, and Jo.

Ed.

[RetroGuy2000]

Originally Posted by Edward216

I don't think it was just the schedule change that helped The Facts Of Life. It also helped that they gave the show something of an overhaul. Dropping several characters from the first season (There were simply too many). And then focusing on just the 4 characters of Blair, Tootie, Natalie, and Jo.

Nah, if Head of the Class could have ten students, and Saved by the Bell could have six students, and Degrassi could have 30 students, then FOL could have managed to make seven work. If Eight is Enough could have ten principal actors, and Cheers a dozen, surely FOL could have managed seven girls. "Too many characters" doesn't hold weight with me when other shows managed it just fine.

And ratings improved immediately when FOL moved to Fridays during Summer 1980; this didn't happen due to a change in cast, since those episodes were reruns. No, it was simply a much better time slot.

[AMackII]

Before it replaced by The N(then later rebranded as TeenNick), Nick GAS channel had more schedule mistakes during the September 2004 to December 2007 period when they...

- slowly cutting down from 16-17(or 18) show to 5 shows during the 2 year span

- doing a schedule automation that cause Pumping GAS to being removed from the schedule in November 2005

- kept it airing on Dish Network on 12/31/07 when The N became the 24/7 channel on Digital Cable

- continue to keep What Would You Do? off from the schedule

I think Nick GAS would've end their run on a high note w/ Double Dare, Legends of the Hidden Temple, Nickelodeon GUTS, Nick Arcade & Figure It Out anchoring the schedule.

[Sal]

The worst scheduling move I ever saw was when ABC moved The Partridge Family from their great Friday lineup to Saturday nights opposite All In The Family, where it proceeded to get destroyed in the ratings. I've never forgiven them for that.

[treky]

CBS moving WKRP IN CINNCINATTI to 11 different time slots in 2 seasons instead of keeping it on Mondays right after MASH where it was for the first 2 seasons and was getting decent ratings. Then they moved it so many times viewers couldn't find it so of course the ratings plummeted and they used that as an excuse to cancel it.

ME TV running MASH weeknights at 7 & 7:30 since the beginning of tine.

[Sal]

Originally Posted by treky

ME TV running MASH weeknights at 7 & 7:30 since the beginning of tine.

This could apply to any channel.

MASH is like an unwelcome relative. Once it shows up, you can't get rid of it!

[factsoflife]

NBC was notorious in the 90's for ruining great shows by failing to give them regular timeslots, two that come to mind:

Newsradio and Just Shoot Me. It always seemed odd to me that these two shows which generated fairly decent ratings were always being moved around the schedule rarely getting a regular timeslot. JSM was actually a fairly competitive show and often won its timeslot; especially when it aired on Tuesday nights.

Another odd scheduling choice NBC made was in 1996 when they debuted the Aaron Spelling produced teen soap opera "Malibu Shores" and aired it on Saturday nights at 9pm. A time when its core audience of teen viewers would likely not be home to watch TV and would be out having fun. It also didn't air the show until the summer, offering even less chance that teens would watch it. It was an odd strategy that didn't pay off, the show tanked in the ratings and got cancelled after half a season.