'Friday Night Lights': Game Subject to Blackout

By Lisa de Moraes
Thursday, October 5, 2006

NBC's "Friday Night Lights" performed like the '76 Buccaneers in its premiere Tuesday night.

Yes, that bad.

Despite the fact that critics hailed the new drama as

(a) extraordinary in just about every conceivable way,

(b) great in the way of art with a single obsessive creator who doesn't have to consult with a committee and has months or years to go back and agonize over line breaks and the color red,

and

(c) [a] rewardingly seasoned new drama series that's practically indistinguishable from the acclaimed feature film, except that it's better,

all but 7.17 million viewers gave it a pass -- about as many as watched Meredith Vieira's second day on the "Today" show.

Anyway, that makes "Friday Night Lights" the worst ratings performance for any series premiere in the official 2006-07 TV season. True, Fox's new sitcom "Happy Hour" opened with just 6.965 million viewers but it debuted before the season officially started on Sept. 18. But, if you're not a stickler and want "Happy Hour" added to the mix, then "Friday Night Lights" is still the worst drama-series premiere this season, ratings-wise.

Even more embarrassing, NBC's football drama got crushed by the pantywaist ballroom dancers of ABC's "Dancing With the Stars," which copped more than 18 million viewers Tuesday night.

NBC noted that its football drama finished first in its 8 p.m. hour among young men. But, in truth, more 18-to-34-year-old males were attracted to the combo of ABC's ballroom dancing and the CW's "Gilmore Girls."

In its review, trade paper Variety, which tends to review TV shows based not only on aesthetics but also on commercial viability, speculated that " 'Friday Night Lights' ultimately feels like one of those family programs middle America and conservatives pine for that too few of them actually bother to watch -- a portrait of decent, God-fearing folks wringing joy from America's game as an escape from their hardscrabble lives."

In an Internet poll about the show, one viewer (who gave "Friday Night Lights" a 10 out of 10) dismissed this review, saying, "That sentiment is why 'Friday Night Lights' will be a huge hit! America (middle or otherwise) is sick of crap TV!!"

Sorry, pookie.

* * *

CBS is flip-flopping its first two sitcoms on Monday night, returning them to the time slots for which they were originally intended.

One of the first things eager young network suits-in-training learn in Television 101 is that returning sitcoms are scheduled on the hour and new sitcoms on the half-hour. Older sitcoms presumably have survived to become older because they are popular (unless they were part of a devil's bargain the network got stuck with in order to hang on to a hit sitcom, but they don't learn that until the second semester, when they study " 'Cosby' and 'A Different World': Anatomy of TV Blackmail").

Freshman sitcoms, on the other hand, are like hothouse flowers -- they need protection. Older sitcoms are scheduled at 8 and 9 p.m. so as to create a protected "hammock" on the half-hour for a new sitcom.

So, in May, no one batted an eye when CBS announced its new comedy "The Class" -- about a group of white twentysomethings who are bound together by virtue of the fact they were in the same third-grade class -- would air Mondays at 8:30 p.m., between returning "How I Met Your Mother" at 8 and "Two and a Half Men" at 9.

So far so good.

But then, the CBS suits started to believe their own hype. "The Class" was the show that was going to bring back the sitcom; it was, after all, from one of the guys who did "Friends." And if anybody knows how to do a show about a bunch of crazy white kids, it's the guys who did "Friends." Quicker than you can say "comedy is dead," CBS changed its mind and announced it was going to swap time slots on "How I Met Your Mother" and "The Class" -- even though the cast of "The Class" included at least one promising show killer -- Next-Door Neighbor Lawyer Bimbo Chick from "Joey." And yes, there are some actors who are considered show killers. Paula Marshall comes to mind.

Premiere Week, it looked like CBS might do okay with this Hail Mary pass. "The Class" opened with about 10.5 million viewers, and "HIMYM" followed, also with 10.5 million viewers. Last week, the second of the new season, things still didn't look too bad; "The Class" clocked 8.5 million and "HIMYM" 9.1 million.

This past Monday, however, TV 101 caught up with CBS: "The Class" averaged 7.9 million viewers and "HIMYM" more than 9 million.

So it's back to school for CBS, starting this coming Monday.