J
Joseph_Gallant
Guest
Reading the New York Times article about Simon Cowell (discussed in another thread on this board), I noted that there is a chance that when "American Idol" returns to Fox in January, that the show's on-air scheduling may be changed.
Since it's premiere as a Summer-replacement program in 2002, "Idol" has been broadcast Tuesdays (normally 8-9 P.M. ET/PT; sometimes extended) and Wednesdays (normally 8:30-9 P.M. ET/PT; again, the Wednesday "results show" is sometimes extended).
For the moment, the midseason (January, 2006) scheduled posted on Fox's website has "Idol" in it's "traditional" time periods. But the article hints that Fox may move "American Idol 5", so the "performance show" is broadcast Wednesdays (I suspect it would be 9-10 P.M. ET/PT) and the "results show" would be broadcast Thursdays (I suspect again, 9-10 P.M. ET/PT).
There might be a couple of reasons Fox may do this.
One might be that by having both weekly editions of "Idol" run from 9 to 10 P.M. ET/PT (8-9 CT/MT), it would lead into late local news on most Fox affiliates. I suspect many Fox local stations would love to have "Idol" leading into their late local newscasts on a regular basis, for it would boost the ratings of those local newscasts (and yes, many of them would devote quite a bit of airtime to "Idol" stories), and make them competitive against 10 P.M. entertainment shows on ABC, CBS, and NBC.
But the other, and more important, reason why "Idol" may switch to a Wednesday/Thursday schedule is this: Over the last few years, Thursday has become the biggest night in prime-time. Why?? Thanks to movie studios (who buy Thursday-night commercial spots to promote movies opening the next day), demand for commercial spots on Thursday nights is the highest of the week.
While Fox is running "The O.C." on Thursdays this season, the network may believe that running "O.C." and the "Idol" results show back-to-back would make Fox a network to be reckoned with on Thursdays. And that would give Fox a bigger slice of the advertising pie from movie studios (although "Idol" already has such major long-term non-movie sponsors like Coca-Cola, Ford, and Cingular Wireless; so the amount of revenue Fox would get from movie studios on Thursdays during "Idol" would be limited).
One other note about a Wednesday/Thursday schedule for "Idol": Since the May "sweeps" and the prime-time TV season both end on the Wednesday night before Memorial Day, I would think that even if "Idol" is seen Wednesdays and Thursdays this season, the final week in May would probably revert to the traditional Tuesday/Wednesday scheduling so that the announcement of the fifth "Idol" winner would fall on the last night of the May sweeps and the TV season.
Another note on scheduling: I would not be surprised if the "semifinal" round of "Idol" (where they begin to narrow the field from 24, 32, or whatever number of semifinalists they have down to the "Top 12") begins the week of February 13th, and that the first two weeks (February 13th-17th and 20th-24th) of the semifinals consist of three performance shows, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday (with different semifinalists on each of those three nights) nights; with the "results show" those two weeks being on Thursday.
Why?? This would be Fox's best chance to make a ratings dent (even if a small one) against NBC's broadcast of the Winter Olympics from Turin (a/k/a Torino), Italy.
Since it's premiere as a Summer-replacement program in 2002, "Idol" has been broadcast Tuesdays (normally 8-9 P.M. ET/PT; sometimes extended) and Wednesdays (normally 8:30-9 P.M. ET/PT; again, the Wednesday "results show" is sometimes extended).
For the moment, the midseason (January, 2006) scheduled posted on Fox's website has "Idol" in it's "traditional" time periods. But the article hints that Fox may move "American Idol 5", so the "performance show" is broadcast Wednesdays (I suspect it would be 9-10 P.M. ET/PT) and the "results show" would be broadcast Thursdays (I suspect again, 9-10 P.M. ET/PT).
There might be a couple of reasons Fox may do this.
One might be that by having both weekly editions of "Idol" run from 9 to 10 P.M. ET/PT (8-9 CT/MT), it would lead into late local news on most Fox affiliates. I suspect many Fox local stations would love to have "Idol" leading into their late local newscasts on a regular basis, for it would boost the ratings of those local newscasts (and yes, many of them would devote quite a bit of airtime to "Idol" stories), and make them competitive against 10 P.M. entertainment shows on ABC, CBS, and NBC.
But the other, and more important, reason why "Idol" may switch to a Wednesday/Thursday schedule is this: Over the last few years, Thursday has become the biggest night in prime-time. Why?? Thanks to movie studios (who buy Thursday-night commercial spots to promote movies opening the next day), demand for commercial spots on Thursday nights is the highest of the week.
While Fox is running "The O.C." on Thursdays this season, the network may believe that running "O.C." and the "Idol" results show back-to-back would make Fox a network to be reckoned with on Thursdays. And that would give Fox a bigger slice of the advertising pie from movie studios (although "Idol" already has such major long-term non-movie sponsors like Coca-Cola, Ford, and Cingular Wireless; so the amount of revenue Fox would get from movie studios on Thursdays during "Idol" would be limited).
One other note about a Wednesday/Thursday schedule for "Idol": Since the May "sweeps" and the prime-time TV season both end on the Wednesday night before Memorial Day, I would think that even if "Idol" is seen Wednesdays and Thursdays this season, the final week in May would probably revert to the traditional Tuesday/Wednesday scheduling so that the announcement of the fifth "Idol" winner would fall on the last night of the May sweeps and the TV season.
Another note on scheduling: I would not be surprised if the "semifinal" round of "Idol" (where they begin to narrow the field from 24, 32, or whatever number of semifinalists they have down to the "Top 12") begins the week of February 13th, and that the first two weeks (February 13th-17th and 20th-24th) of the semifinals consist of three performance shows, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday (with different semifinalists on each of those three nights) nights; with the "results show" those two weeks being on Thursday.
Why?? This would be Fox's best chance to make a ratings dent (even if a small one) against NBC's broadcast of the Winter Olympics from Turin (a/k/a Torino), Italy.