Era Of Original Entertainment Programming On Saturdays Now Officially Over
When Fox’s Cops premiered in 1989, there were original series on all of the Big 4 networks. By the turn of the century, only Fox and CBS were carrying first-run series, with NBC and ABC surrendering the night to movies. By the mid-2000s, every network but Fox had switched to a mix of series repeats/movies/newsmagazines. Fox held the court with veterans Cops and America’s Most Wanted until last May when it canceled AMW in favor of repeats. It has preempted Cops several times this season for sports coverage and, most recently, the Jennifer Lopez-Marc Anthony reality series Q’Viva! And there are a lot more pre-emptions on the horizon as Fox Sports will be taking over Saturday night in 28 of the next 32 weeks for NASCAR, MLB, NFL, college football and UFC coverage. In doing that, Fox joins ABC, which too has been airing sports programming on Saturday night for the past few years. Twenty four seasons in, Cops still is delivering decent numbers for Saturday night, an average of 1.2 18-49 rating which often is enough to top the night in the demo. But, instead of managing the decline, the network is looking for a franchise that it feels it could grow. Fox is not canceling Cops outright, instead cutting back the order for Season 25, whose time slot is TBD.
While inevitable, it is sad to see the network’s entertainment divisions throwing in the towel on Saturday, which once housed some of the best series on television. Consider the 1973 CBS Saturday lineup of All In The Family, M*A*S*H*, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Bob Newhart Show and Carol Burnett Show. Saturday’s rapid decline is even more puzzling as it continues to be the biggest night of television in most of Europe, including the U.K., where the biggest shows, currently The Voice and Britain’s Got Talent, go head-to-head on Saturday. In May, CBS announced a plan to reclaim the night with originals of Rules Of Engagement but that appeared to be just a place holder, and Rules was summoned to Thursdays when How To Be A Gentleman fizzled. These days, the only entertainment originals on Saturday are burnoffs, like Gentleman and NBC’s The Firm.
Indeed very puzzling. I’m not watching trash like Q’Viva!, and am often looking for programming I would enjoy over the weekend. It there were quality shows (like Sopranos, Breaking Bad, or Walking Dead that all have done well on Sundays) on, people would watch them.
All In The Family, M*A*S*H*, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Bob Newhart Show and Carol Burnett Show…. This was awesome TV back in the day.. I still dont get it.. why Saturdays are gone!
In 1973 you watched a show live or you didn’t expect to ever see it. Many a night I delayed going out so I could watch a couple of these shows (while Carol Burnett I hardly ever saw much as I liked her). Now you don’t have to watch any scripted show live, so you can just do whatever else you want to on Friday and Saturday nights.
So Fox is axing Cops, or airing it as “specials” in between sport?
Saturday is for catching up on shows that are on the DVR…
Its baffling to me. In the UK Saturday TV is huge.
The Love Boat and Fantasy Island…Saturday’s from my youth. Also, while we’re at it, I miss Saturday morning cartoons, too. I know they’re out there, but it isn’t the same when it’s not something to look forward to all week.
Nellie,those Saturday shows you mentioned are classics indeed. If I’m not mistaken ( & I could be ) Fantasy Island & Hart to Hart also aired Saturday nights eons ago. It’s a real shame,but,a sign of the times I suppose. I agree with the commenter who noted if there were better Saturday programs,more people would watch. Recently,Saturday has become the night where unsuccessful weeknight programs(such as The Firm) were sent to. Seems network tv is giving us less & less original programming. I still remember the days when the WB/CW still aired new stuff on Sunday nights as well. Nowadays,they only air 10 hours for an entire week. It’s understandable more viewers are migrating to cable. The last remaining network has now also abandoned viewers on Saturdays. I know more people go out on Saturdays-I get that. I still remember TGIF on Friday nights & as a fan of good television programming-I just hope all the networks (even the CW,which I often malign) continue having original programs on Fridays. It’d be a shame if what happened to Saturday nights happened to Friday nights as well. Thank you.
Well it may seem like the end of an era, but after this herd of TV execs gets thinned out, I’m sure some young turk will see what an opportunity this night can bring with the right show.
Essentially this is what happened with Summer scheduling back in the day; there was a huge gap until LOST and a few other shows took advantage.
When did “Lost” ever air in summer?
I believe LOST was a fall show. It premiered in late September. But I see your larger point. It would be interesting to see a programming exec try something new in the relative obscurity of Saturday night. Bigger corporate interests, however, make this a quixotic notion. Why invest in a new kind of Saturday night when you can just siphon content from another part of your huge multinational? (Especially expensive sports content that needs as many platforms as it can get to justify its existence.)
Im not going to mourn the loss of Cops no matter how you frame it.
I can certainly understand this. I’m in my mid-40s and I haven’t watched TV on a Saturday night in 2 decades, and not just because there isn’t anything on – between movies, the internet and friends, I’m not usually home on Saturday nights more than 4 or 5 times a year – and I’m not a big party or social person.