Fall Season 2004 Profile
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Fall Season 2004 profile - CBS - USA This season, CBS is stronger than ever with younger demos to fortify Fall season 2003 Other than a few persistent weak spots in the schedule and one highly-touted flop, it was a its household ratings. Much of CBS’ recent success has been at the season to be very proud of at CBS. expense of NBC, which underestimated CBS’ ability to attract Its Monday night comedy block continued to perform stron g l y , with Yes, Dear at 20.00, followed by Still Standing and the powerhouse, Everybody Loves Raymond at 21.00. Despite younger audiences and challenge their ‘must see TV’ Thursday fears that star Ray Romano would make 2003-2004 the last season of the show, he was coaxed nights. back for a ninth and final season. At 21.30, the network was able to launch a new hit comedy, Two And A Half Men, in a hostile programming environment for the traditional sitcom. This led Historically the network has been criticised for appealing to older, into the sophomore season of CSI: Miami, the first spin-off of the wildly successful foren s i c less commercially desirable viewers at the expense of programming mystery drama. In the 20.00 slot on Tuesdays CBS took a risk by leading off the night with the new series for younger, more urban and affluent ones. Having attained stability NCIS, which was a spin-off of its ever-r eliable JAG. The risk paid off as the drama set against in both leadership and audience share, CBS is poised to enter the the Naval Criminal Investigative Service became another hit at the network. Tuesdays at 21.00, however, was a sore spot. The season opened with The Guardian, a drama 2005-2006 broadcast season in a dominant position. that declined enough not to be renewed for 2004. Also in the slot was the failed mid season drama, Century City, which only lasted a few episodes. Tuesdays at 22.00 was the consistent pe r f o r m e r , Judging Amy. Channel Backgrou n d Wednesdays led off with the hour-long news magazine 60 Minutes II, followed by the CBS has had the greatest leadership continuity of any network. The network was founded in comedy King Of Queens. But Wednesdays at 21.30 was another timeslot with room for 1929 by cigar scion William S. Paley, whose sensibilities and entrep r eneurial acumen defined the im p r ovement. The aging comedy Becker, starring Ted Danson, started the season there network for seven decades, until his death in 1990. and was replaced in mid season with a new comedy The Stones, which had a short run Pa l e y ’ s ability to attract A-List talent, build the television news business and stay ahead of the be f o r e cancellation. technological curve earned CBS the moniker ‘The Tif fany Network.’ Paley also was a pioneer in But 22.00 was the season’s biggest disappointment for CBS, with the high-profile failure, The the network/affiliate relationship, providing programming to affiliates free of charge in exchange Br otherhood Of Poland, NH. This show, from mega-producer David E. Kelley, was gone by for an option on advertising time, thus building the original model for the network business. October and replaced with the newsmagazine 48 Hours Investigates. In the early days of television, CBS distinguished itself with classic shows such as I Love Lucy, Thursday was the night that CBS really started to shine and where it successfully put the other The Ed Sullivan Show, The Jackie Gleason Show and Gunsmoke. In the 60s, the network struck networks on notice that it was a legitimate factor in the 18-49 demo. gold with The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres and The Twilight Zone. A creative renewal in the Despite the massive hype surrounding the final season of Friends, CBS retained a competitive 1970s redefined the network with comedy hits such as All In The Family, M*A*S*H, Mary Tyl e r audience number at 20.00 for Survivor. At 21.00 CBS took advantage of NBC’s smaller sitcom Mo o r e and The Carol Burnett Show. In the 1980s, the hits were Alice and Cagney and Lacey. numbers with CSI, and performed admirably when NBC prem i e r ed the new hit reality series, Following Paley’s death without a successor in place, the network narrowly avoided a hostile The Apprentice, in the slot at mid season. The 22.00 hour solidified the status of drama, takeover by Ted Turn e r . Lawrence Tisch bought CBS and struggled to keep the network on track Without A Trace, as a serious competitor to NBC’s ER. by streamlining the core business and selling assets. Tisch sold CBS to Westinghouse in 1995 and CBS was also successful at launching another new hit series on Friday nights at 20.00 with Les Moonves joined the company as President, CBS Entertainment. Westinghouse ret a i n e d Joan Of Arcadia, about a teen girl who talks to God. This was followed by the series set against ownership of the network until 2000, when CBS merged with Viacom to create the global media the military’s Judge Advocate General, JAG, at 21.00. At 22.00, CBS unsuccessfully tried to powerhouse that we know today. launch a new drama, The Handler, starring Joe Pantoliano as an FBI agent. It lasted the season, In addition to CBS, Viacom owns the broadcast network UPN, and cable channels such as but was not renewed. MTV, Showtime and Nickelodeon. Moonves is now the chairman of CBS as well as the co- Sa t u r day was easily the weakest night on CBS’ schedule last season. The night led off president and co-coo of Viacom and exerts the most influence over the direction of the respectably with 48 Hours Investigates, followed by the failed new drama Hack, about a police network of anyone in CBS’ history since William S. Paley. Under Moonves’ leadership, the of ficer turned taxi driver fighting for justice. The night’s programming concluded with the final network has steadily grown by appealing to its base audience of older, middle-American season of The District, starring Craig T. Nelson. viewers while appealing to younger viewers with franchised series, such as Survivor, The Sunday nights led off at 19.00 with 60 Minutes. After a couple of seasons of difficulty on Amazing Race and CSI. Sunday nights at 20.00, CBS was finally able to launch a new hit series with Cold Case, yet Fall Season 2004 Report 06 CBS USA another procedural detective drama. The night concluded with The CBS Sunday Night Movie, median age of 46. a rotation of original films and acquired theatricals. November 2004 marked the first time CBS has won a “trifecta” (viewers, adults 18-49 and All told, 2003-2004 was an extremely successful season for CBS. The network was able to adults 25-54) since 1980. It also won the sweeps on Thursdays in adults 18-49, a night ruled launch four new hit series. Of two new comedies launched, one was a bona fide hit. Three of by NBC since 1984, when Bill Cosby joined the lineup. seven new dramas ret u r ned for 2004 and two of them are in this season’s top ten shows. In Se e m i n g l y , the motto this season has been ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ Mondays rem a i n an industry conditioned to accept failure rates of 80-85%, having almost half the new shows dominated by comedies, with some minor adjustments from last season. Still Standing moved ret u r n successfully is quite an accomplishment. to 20.00 to lead off the night, followed by the new family comedy starring Seinfeld’s Jason Al e x a n d e r , Listen Up. Although this show has received a full season orde r , it is highly Fall season 2004 questionable that it will ret u r n next season. The success of CBS this season is best summed up by its performance in the November 2004 Everybody Loves Raymond is in its last season at 21.00, followed by Two And A Half Men at sweeps period, in which it won its first November rating period in adults 18-49 since 1980. The 21.30. Given the dearth of new hit comedies this season, it’s likely that Two And A Half Men network also finished first in viewers for the seventh consecutive sweep dating back to will move up to 21.00 next season. CSI: Miami airs at 22.00 on Mondays. November 2002, and placed first in adults 25-54. The network kept NCIS in the Tuesday 20.00 slot, but 21.00 remains troublesome. A new Highly significant are the gains CBS has made in demographics. For the past several seasons, baseball drama produced by Mel Gibson, Clubhouse, has been cancelled. The Amazing Race other networks have been able to diminish the success of CBS in households by pointing out is now in the time period. The reality franchise continues to perform, but this has to be one of that the median age of its viewers was 53, compared with the broadcast networks’ average the time periods CBS is focusing on for next season. Judging Amy remains a top ten show for Fall Season 2004 Report 07 CBS USA CBS at 22.00.