LAFF Oct. 2021: Home Improvement, That 70s Show Return to Primetime, HIMYM Downgraded

[icecream]

New schedule starts Monday and will mostly be 7 days a week. I knew How I Met Your Mother was a dumb pickup. Night Court also gets a nice upgrade.

6-7AM How I Met Your Mother
7-8AM World's Funniest Videos
8-9AM According to Jim
9-11AM Grace Under Fire
11AM-1PM Night Court
1-3PM World's Funniest Videos
3-5PM That 70s Show
5-7PM According to Jim
7-9PM Home Improvement
9-11PM That 70s Show
11PM-12AM How I Met Your Mother
12AM Monday Movie Tuesday-Saturday How I Met Your Mother
1-2AM Tuesday-Saturday Night Court
2-3AM World's Funniest Videos
3-6AM Infomercials

Sunday night 8PM-midnight is movies. Midnight on October 10 just has default listings for now.

[MA]

I had a feeling that How I Met Your Mother wouldn't do well.

[Svenfan1234]

Hasn't it been a whole year since LAFF added any new show? Sad that they're just shuffling around shows they've been airing many times now. It makes me wonder if they'll even be around in a couple years if they still refuse to add any new shows but think that marathoning these shows, good as some of them are, endlessly will be what helps them they'll be sadly mistaken. It's really sad to see this once-good channel that had shows that were seldom seen in syndication revert to endless marathons of shows easily seen on DVD or streaming.

[icecream]

2 or 3 hour blocks of shows really is just mini marathons compared to many channels that air really long all day or much of the day marathons. I don't want to buy Home Improvement on DVD (don't even have a player at my place) and the only thing I stream is the free tier of Peacock, used to do the livestreams for Decades and BUZZR but those ended up being so unreliable. I am also not buying Night Court on DVD but it is nice that got an upgrade, and Grace Under Fire is a good show. Many still like watching TV the traditional way on an actual station you don't have to stream. As it is Home Improvement deserved a 3rd hour on the schedule, strange they put it back in access/prime but it is the only show on the weekday lineup with only 2 hours. World's Funniest Videos or That 70s Show (which already has 2 hours in prime) should have had an afternoon hour cut instead.

[Svenfan1234]

Originally Posted by icecream

2 or 3 hour blocks of shows really is just mini marathons compared to many channels that air really long all day or much of the day marathons. I don't want to buy Home Improvement on DVD (don't even have a player at my place) and the only thing I stream is the free tier of Peacock, used to do the livestreams for Decades and BUZZR but those ended up being so unreliable. I am also not buying Night Court on DVD but it is nice that got an upgrade, and Grace Under Fire is a good show. Many still like watching TV the traditional way on an actual station you don't have to stream. As it is Home Improvement deserved a 3rd hour on the schedule, strange they put it back in access/prime but it is the only show on the weekday lineup with only 2 hours. World's Funniest Videos or That 70s Show (which already has 2 hours in prime) should have had an afternoon hour cut instead.

There's still the fact that the last show they picked up was in September 2020 which was HIMYM. They still have the Disney route, getting shows from them, but they seem to be their only primary distributor right now. If they do get a new show by the end of the year, that's a good sign. Otherwise, this can be officially marked as a dead channel if there are no more pickups and especially if they lose more shows which I can see happening. I think all but Night Court are on streaming services right now, which seems to be the preferred choice of many. There are many good seldom seen sitcoms that they could get, though.

[icecream]

Everything shouldn't just be relegated to streamers. Traditional TV that is available over the air and cable is never going away. There are a bunch of worthless channels on traditional TV, but LAFF is not one of them. Worthless local diginets I have that I wouldn't miss at all if they left are whatever true crime channel is on 249, Bounce, Grit, and the hordes of PBS sub-stations.

[Svenfan1234]

Originally Posted by icecream

Everything shouldn't just be relegated to streamers. Traditional TV that is available over the air and cable is never going away. There are a bunch of worthless channels on traditional TV, but LAFF is not one of them. Worthless local diginets I have that I wouldn't miss at all if they left are whatever true crime channel is on 249, Bounce, Grit, and the hordes of PBS sub-stations.

What I was saying is that streaming is very popular but it likely will never take away entirely from traditional TV, although traditional TV ratings have been going down a lot. LAFF, for example, barely was above 100,000 viewers for the entire year last year (I think around 120,000) which is pretty good for a digital subchannel, but this year I would bet that it is lower since they haven't added anything new. Subchannels won't go away, especially ones like Antenna, Me, Rewind, Decades, etc. since they are popular.

[icecream]

It has been great getting to see Night Court in watchable hours again. That alone makes this schedule a big upgrade. Adding something new is only a good thing if that new show is quality, sure wasn't last year with How I Met Your Mother.

[BigManMike]

I wish Home Improvement was on a little later like maybe an hour or two later like it used to be. That’s the only show I really like on Laff.

[BigManMike]

I wish Home Improvement was on a little later like maybe an hour or two later like it used to be. That’s the only show I really like on Laff.

[James28]

Unfortunately, I have not seen one rerun of That '70s Show since it was pulled from IFC after the sexual-assault allegations against Danny Masterson came to light, and that's something I was disappointed to see in the first place because I only went up to the early part of season 6. Plus, our household, being Dish subscribers, has not received Laff since early last year, and I think Laff is now one of those channels that you have to pay extra for on Dish.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by MA

I had a feeling that How I Met Your Mother wouldn't do well.

It wouldn't surprise me of the hub-bub that the finale caused, killed any desire in a lot of people to rewatch HIMYM. That is pretty much the downside when your whole show is built around a journey and the destination winds up being a pile of trash.

[icecream]

With Coach expiring from Antenna TV at the end of the year, LAFF should snatch up the rights. Coach would be a lot more compatible leadout show for Night Court afternoons than World's Funniest Videos, which has never belonged on a station for sitcoms.