NBC wants to keep ‘Lights’ on longer
The 2006-07 TV season is becoming the Year of the Patient Networks.
The latest beneficiary of the trend is NBC’s “Friday Night Lights,” which received a full-season order this week despite the fact that the show is among the least-watched new dramas on any of the Big Four networks.
“Friday Night Lights” is averaging 6.7 million viewers per week in first-run broadcasts. Among new dramas, only NBC’s already canceled “Kidnapped” (5.6 million) has brought in a smaller audience this fall, although Fox’s “Vanished” is headed that way.
Among the encouraging signs for NBC are the fact that the Tuesday night show’s rating among 18- to 49-year-olds tends to rise in its second half-hour – a sign that viewers are sticking with it – and that its audience was above average in a special Monday airing on Oct. 30, which drew about 8 million viewers.
“Friday Night Lights” becomes the third new NBC series to be picked up, following “Heroes” and “Studio 60,” which has also had some ratings issues.
ABC also has been patient with some of its new shows, picking up “Men in Trees” and second-year show “What About Brian” despite less-than-stellar numbers and ordering extra scripts for “The Nine.”
CBS has been a mixed bag, yanking the expensive drama “Smith” after just three episodes but giving comedy “The Class” a reprieve by asking for more scripts.
Fox has yet to pick up any of its fall series and already has pulled “Happy Hour” and “Justice.” Having been exiled to Friday, “Vanished” seems an unlikely bet to get more episodes, which leaves only “Standoff” and ” ‘Til Death” as viable possibilities to continue into 2007.
‘Dancing’ right back
On the heels of a hugely successful finale for the current season of “Dancing with the Stars,” ABC is considering bringing the show back for another run in the spring.
The fourth edition of the show likely will premiere in March, though it may be in a different time period than the 8 p.m. Tuesday-Wednesday spots it occupied this fall – since that would put it up against “American Idol.”
The final episodes of “Dancing with the Stars” this week rang up the biggest audiences for any shows in the 2006-07 season thus far. Tuesday’s final performance show drew 26.8 million viewers, and the crowning of Emmitt Smith as the season’s winner on Wednesday beat that, with 27.2 million people tuning in.
‘Speech’ less
There will be a little less “Free Speech” on Katie Couric’s “CBS Evening News.”
The controversial opinion segment will be cut back to a couple of times a week, sometimes less, and feature more people whose positions aren’t already well-known, said Rome Hartman, the broadcast’s executive producer.
It was the most experimental segment on Couric’s broadcast, currently third behind NBC and ABC in the ratings.
“We did learn as we went along that some worked better than others, although I found most of them quite interesting,” Hartman said. “The ones that we were giving a platform to somebody who already had one worked less well.”