• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Whatever happened to Saturday nights?

Advertising budgets can be shifted with a single telephone call or email.
The problem for the advertisers is that the older demo's don't fall for their scams.
"Buy one and get another one absolutely free ... just pay additional shipping and handling."
 
Regardless...bottom line is that TV viewership Saturday night is statistically the lowest of the entire week. Has been for a long time. As someone else said, Friday is pretty close behind. Both nights are losers for network TV. That's not going to change. All the trips down memory lane are wonderful, but the past ain't coming back.
 
That gravy train has been gushing its golden goodness all along the Goodnight Trail for a good many years...how soon before Thursday night goes low rent?
 
Advertising budgets can be shifted with a single telephone call or email.
The problem for the advertisers is that the older demo's don't fall for their scams.
"Buy one and get another one absolutely free ... just pay additional shipping and handling."

The elderly are always cited as most likely to fall for a telephone scam. Why not a deceptive TV ad? Or are you talking about the lower end of 55+?
 
CBS was the last network to drop original scripted programming from Saturday nights (The District was cancelled at the end of the 2003/2004 season). NBC tried reviving "Hunter" in its old Saturday night timeslot, but I think it lasted all of two airings. The last time any of the networks really competed on Saturday was the early-90s and then NBC had it pretty much locked up with its Carsey-Werner comedies ("Golden Girls", "Empty Nest", etc)

Actually, those were Witt-Thomas-Harris comedies, for whatever it's worth.
 
Last edited:
Regardless...bottom line is that TV viewership Saturday night is statistically the lowest of the entire week. Has been for a long time. As someone else said, Friday is pretty close behind. Both nights are losers for network TV. That's not going to change. All the trips down memory lane are wonderful, but the past ain't coming back.

To quote Chad and Jeremy, "That was yesterday, and yesterday's gone."

ixnay
 
To quote Chad and Jeremy, "That was yesterday, and yesterday's gone."

ixnay

No kidding. During the years in the mid 70s when CBS had Saturday night ratings winners with All in the Family, Mary Tyler Moore, Rhoda, Bob Newhart & Carol Burnett - restaurants, music venues and movie theaters actually complained because too many people were staying home to watch TV on the week's biggest night for going out. Needless to say, this was a few years before VCRs, so if you wanted to watch these shows, you had to tune in when they were broadcast. Seems like the stone age now...
 
No kidding. During the years in the mid 70s when CBS had Saturday night ratings winners with All in the Family, Mary Tyler Moore, Rhoda, Bob Newhart & Carol Burnett - restaurants, music venues and movie theaters actually complained because too many people were staying home to watch TV on the week's biggest night for going out. Needless to say, this was a few years before VCRs, so if you wanted to watch these shows, you had to tune in when they were broadcast. Seems like the stone age now...

the first consumer VCRs were released in the late 70s but it would another decade before they were affordable for the mainstream, and even more before people could figure out how to program them, even if they put something were watching on Sat nights, people would just watch it later on DVR or streaming, networks can no longer dictate when people watch what they offer the viewers, too few viewers between 18-49 watching live network TV on sat nights, the few available have 500 cable channels and streaming services available to them, why would sellers of geezer products/services pay high primetime ad prices when they can reach their target demo during daytime TV or network like MeTV (or Fox News Channel)
 
id say that the shows i watched on Saturday nights between 91 and 94 were good at one end you had a reality show("On Scene") and at the other end you had a drama that could be emotional("Sisters") also several comedies that could make you laugh in between NBC(and my station) had a good lineup from 91 to 94

even if you put "good" show on Saturday nights nowadays, not enough people will watch them live, before the VCR people had to watch them live or miss them and wait for the rerun
 
networks don't want to "waste" high budget shows by putting them on when people won't be watching, that's why the have reruns during the super bowl and other major events
 
would the NBA Playoffs count? i remember CBS having the Lakers Mavericks series in 88 opposite the China Beach premiere movie and i had 2 TV's so i watched both but CBS would had won the night anyway since the NBA at that time was starting to become more popular

they put sports on because it's DVR proof and streaming sports looks like crap compared to an HD feed, but no one will stay home for a "good" non-sports program, they'll just DVR or stream it and watch it later
 
if they moved any of your current (non sports) favorite shows to Saturday night, would you stay home and watch them live or would you DVR or stream them later?
 
But as several people have pointed out, today we don't have to make that choice because a huge percentage of the population have various video recording devices that allow them to watch shows at their personal convenience. It ain't 1988 any more.
 
One problem that no one has mentioned is that if you hold a show on your DVR longer than 7 days, the show doesn't get credit in the ratings. So it's more likely that people will watch their DVR'd weekday shows on Saturday morning than watch their Saturday night shows on a weekday. So the Saturday shows end up sitting on the DVR longer, and the shows don't get credit for the view. Wednesday night is a great night for TV because people can DVR their show, watch it on Saturday morning, and the show gets credit.

http://www.thefutoncritic.com/ratin...increasing-in-days-8-28-764011/20150116abc02/
 
During 1984, '85, and '86(the first three seasons for 'The Cosby Show', and the last three before the Sunday night package began in '87, and replaced the non-Monday 'special edition' ABC games), the network's Thursday night games aired in September(before the Cosby Show's season began) and the week after Thanksgiving, when the NBC line up was in reruns.) In years prior to '84, ABC usually put one of its Thursday games in late October, so the change is interesting. ABC replaced its third Thursday game with a Friday Week 16 contest in those last three years.
 
let me think in 91 since ABC`s contract guaranteed the Big Ten and Pac-10 conferences that their regional games would be seen in at least 50 percent of the country and China Beach didn't fit the Saturday night timeslot, maybe ABC could have went with college football on Saturday nights before 2006?
ABC usually had a Saturday night game on the first weekend of the season under that contract. In retrospect, I wish they'd done prime-time games every week, because that 1991-95 deal was terrible.
 
1991-92 was the last year for 'Golden Girls', and its ratings fell off a cliff because it was moved to 8 ET/7CT(plus, some West Coast stations started doing 'Early Prime Time' in early '92, and the audience didn't follow the show to earlier time slots. So, ABC might have done better than expected with football.
 
ABC usually had a Saturday night game on the first weekend of the season under that contract. In retrospect, I wish they'd done prime-time games every week, because that 1991-95 deal was terrible.

The problem with the 1991-95 deal was that ABC had deals with both the Big 10-Pac 10 and the old CFA(College Football Association) This was the 1st time since 1981 that college football was on one over the air network. Since ABC already had the Big 10-Pac 10 contract in place when they got the CFA contract from CBS ABC had a decision to make. As stated the Pac 10-Big 10 deal stated that their games had to go to 50 percent of the country ABC was forced to go to a regional concept for there CFA deal. The CFA had a decision to make in 1991, stay with CBS for exposure since the games on CBS would have been national or go with the ABC deal which was more money. They chose ABC and went with the money.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom