The 20 Biggest Mess-Ups/Mistakes in CBS History

[cnnbcbs]

Moving Love of Life out of its longtime 11:30am timeslot. LOL was a staple of CBS since 1950 and was improving when they moved it to 4pm with the intention of cancelling it quietly six months or so later.

CBS always seemed to struggle in the 10am hour. They shoulda kept TPIR at 10:30 or air it at 10 leading to a new game show at 11am

[Mario500]

Originally Posted by cnnbcbs

Moving Love of Life out of its longtime 11:30am timeslot. LOL was a staple of CBS since 1950 and was improving when they moved it to 4pm with the intention of cancelling it quietly six months or so later.

CBS always seemed to struggle in the 10am hour. They shoulda kept TPIR at 10:30 or air it at 10 leading to a new game show at 11am

(wonders about the "time zones" for the "11:30am", the "4pm", the "10am", the "10:30", the "10", and the "11am" mentioned in this message, along with the whether the "10" mentioned in that message was made in reference to "10am" or "10pm" and whether the "10:30" mentioned in that message was made in reference to "10:30am" or "10:30pm")

[merlinjones]

Selling longterm broadcast rights to The Wizard of Oz back to Turner.

Letting go of the Peanuts franchise.

Changing ABC's WWII era Wonder Woman to modern day when they picked up series.

Not doing a Knots Landing next generation series.

Letting go of the original Ridge Forester on Bold & the Beautiful.

Letting Vivian Vance leave The Lucy Show.

Mayberry RFD.

Losing Scooby Doo to ABC.

Not doing more episodes of Josie & the Pussycats.

Letting go of the original Captain Marvel on Shazam!

Changing MASH from comedy to drama.

Cancelling Gilligan's Island and Lost in Space without a conclusion.

Cancelling The Munsters before going to color.

Over developing The Doris Day Show, Rhoda, and Phyllis.

[danderson400]

Originally Posted by cnnbcbs

Moving Love of Life out of its longtime 11:30am timeslot. LOL was a staple of CBS since 1950 and was improving when they moved it to 4pm with the intention of cancelling it quietly six months or so later.

CBS always seemed to struggle in the 10am hour. They shoulda kept TPIR at 10:30 or air it at 10 leading to a new game show at 11am

This really wasn't CBS's fault per see, Tic Tac Dough was a prime example of this. Eighteen
percent of CBS affiliates bypassed Tic Tac Dough in favor of the final
half-hour of Mike Douglas, Merv Griffin or Dinah Shore talk shows or
for other syndicated programming. But rather than CBS opting out of the contract
before the customary 13 weeks, i would have moved TTD to 11:30 and shifted Love of Life to 3:30

[danderson400]

Originally Posted by cnnbcbs

Moving Love of Life out of its longtime 11:30am timeslot. LOL was a staple of CBS since 1950 and was improving when they moved it to 4pm with the intention of cancelling it quietly six months or so later.

CBS always seemed to struggle in the 10am hour. They shoulda kept TPIR at 10:30 or air it at 10 leading to a new game show at 11am

Too many stations bypassed Tic Tac Dough in favor of the final
half-hour of Mike Douglas, Merv Griffin or Dinah Shore talk shows. If CBS had been smart, they would have scheduled sitcom reruns at 10, Price at 10:30 and TTD at 11:30. But then where does Love of Life go?

[cnnbcbs]

I wonder if it was a mistake renewing magnum p.i. for an 8th season. The season 7 finale, while downbeat scored some of the highest ratings of that season. Ending it there would be going out on a high note ratings wise.

RE: Love of Life, in the above scenario I would place it at 10am. Clearance for the time-slot is lower but it would provide consistency in a time-slot with high turnover.

[KurtfromPitts]

Actually Love of Life began in 1951, a few weeks after Search For Tomorrow debuted.

[cnnbcbs]

I still hate that they cancelled Captain Kangaroo. They could've at least have Bob Keeshan host CBS storybreak as Captain Kangaroo.

[cnnbcbs]

Cancelling Gloria after one season. The show won its timeslot, ranked in the top 20 (#18) and built on its lead-in, Archie Bunker's Place. Should have given the show (and ABP) a second season in the Wednesday 8pm CBS comedy death slot and then cancel it. CBS just lost MASH and much of their comedy slate were getting up there in age.

[cnnbcbs]

Moving off Crazy Like A Fox, then cancelling it. The show did great in its Sunday timeslot with high retention from Murder She Wrote. Don't know what they had against it, it was a fun show. It was good counter-programming to all the movies at 9.

It was stupid to have three competing movie nights, might as well go to bed at 9. Luckilly Fox would provide an alternative to movies starting in '87.

[HarryWild]

Removing Murder She Wrote because viewers were to old.

Changing Star Trek legacy into something completely off the wall!

Do a woke version of Macgyver!

Canceling Golden Boy cop drama after the 7 episode!

[Mario500]

Originally Posted by HarryWild

Changing Star Trek legacy into something completely off the wall!

Do a woke version of Macgyver!

"off the wall"?

"woke"?

[simmytbone]

Originally Posted by cnnbcbs

I still hate that they cancelled Captain Kangaroo. They could've at least have Bob Keeshan host CBS storybreak as Captain Kangaroo.

Yeah, I can understand that, but putting him on Public Television's PBS was their only option, it either that or put it on syndication

The Captain would last 6 more years on PBS from 1986-1992

Heck, even The Captain appeared on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood

also, CBS cancelling Fat Albert in 1984, but then when they moved it to syndication the same year that Cos began his 8 year reign on The Cosby Show and CBS would lose its #1 spot during the 2nd half of the 80's to NBC and as for Fat Albert, when the show moved to syndication, this was Filmation's Way of cashing in on the success of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and it failed (even though they introduced us to Legal Eagle), plus I didn't like how they made Rudy's character for vicious and Russell too mean, especially against Rudy

I also believe that Fat Albert moving to syndication after years on CBS was a huge mistake mainly because the show just ran its course and I also think that Mr. Cosby and Filmation either ran out of ideas or the show lost steam

Plus here's something else:

The Late Lou Scheimer was born in Pittsburgh while Mr. Cosby was born in Philly and the late Norm Prescott was born in Boston

[MIKEPR]

Can't you just accept the fact you can't expect a network to keep a show on forever?

Plus if Bill ran out of ideas then it was his decision to cease production on it.

[simmytbone]

Losing the Bugs Bunny Road Runner Show back home to abc