Thursday Night Is Up For Grabs

The winds of change are blowing.

Thursday is the most important night of the week for the major networks. Advertisers will spend more money in an attempt to target viewers who are making their weekend plans. As the Los Angeles Times reports, Thursday is also a consistently competitive night in primetime.

William Petersen's (Gil Grissom) exit from CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is putting the hit drama on more uneven footing as the audience gets used to his replacement, Laurence Fishburne (Dr Raymond Langston). Grey's Anatomy is CSI's major rival for the timeslot, and ABC is hoping the medical drama will be able benefit by pulling in larger audiences. In the 10:00pm hour, NBC is preparing to retire longtime series ER this season (to be replaced by Jay Leno's new primetime show next year). Fox has moved its popular programme Bones to Thursdays in an attempt to take advantage of the important night.

With so many changes happening, Thursday night is anyone's game. Overall, the major networks have all lost viewers as people turn to cable. In the 1998-1999 season, NBC boasted 30% of the 18-49 demographic prized by advertisers on Thursday nights. This season, leader CBS only gets 10% of the demo. However, Fox behemoth American Idol pulls in large numbers of viewers on Tuesdays and Wednesdays in the second half of the season, proving that the audience is there if the networks can figure out how to grab it.

The original article is from The LA Times.

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