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Once upon a time, a multi-camera comedy about a group of young single friends, the core of them 
living across the hall from each other in an apartment building, aired Thursdays at 8 PM and was the biggest show on television. Will that happen again? Is The Big Bang Theory the new Friends? While the nerdy geniuses from Big Bang seem light years away from the cool and sexy bunch on the hit NBC comedy, the two shows have a lot more in common than meets the eye. Both are ensemble comedies largely set at the two apartments across from each other where the main character live. A guy from one of the apartments starts dating a girl from the other. Both shows have catchy title songs. And now, they both share the Thursday 8PM time slot. Just how ballsy was CBS’ decision to launch a comedy block at 8 PM anchored by Big Bang? The last time the network tried that was 45 years ago with Gilligan’s Island at 8 PM.
There has always been an invisible segregation on the TV schedule. For instance, Thursday has always been NBC’s comedy night, Monday has been CBS’. Will viewers follow Big Bang if it leaves sheltered existence on CBS’ established comedy night and ventures into hostile territory? CBS already has a solid track record in gaining ground on Thursday: It was the first network to undermine NBC’s dominance on the night when it moved Survivor and CSI there nine years ago. And Big Bang already is the highest-rated scripted series on television. But it became No.1 thanks to airing behind Two and a Half Men this season. Its originals hover above a 5 rating in adults 18-49, but when it aired as an anchor at 9 PM recently, it dropped to a 4.6 rating. Even at that level, Big Bang would probably be the highest rated series on Thursday night but I’m sure CBS didn’t go through all this trouble to get only a marginal improvement over long-time Thursday anchor Survivor. I’m sure CBS is hoping for a big ratings bang; I’m sure it is hoping for a new Friends.
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Big Bang has the potential of mirroring the success of Friends. They just need to be very careful to NOT turn the Sheldon character into a brainiac Urkel. That would kill the show.
Actually, CBS tried sitcoms in the Thursday 8 ET hour a bit more recently. In the spring of 1972, “Me and the Chimp” and “My Three Sons” occupied the slot for several months.
CBS is smart and successful with their programming.
NBC has Zucker who would rather be surrounded by people he can brainwash.
NBC is going to get their asses handed to them.
No.
New days for CBS shows rarely turn out well. Outside of Survivor, CSI and Everybody Loves Raymond any show that has moved to different days has declined in viewers.
Go back and check out King of Queens, Becker, Yes, Dear, Old Christine, Still Standing, Cosby or The Nanny. May have shifted timeslots but really declined when they moved to new nights.
The Mentalist was huge on Tuesdays and then moved to Thursdays this year. Declined in viewers.
Remember how Without a Trace was a big hit on Thursdays? Then it moved to Sundays, then back to Thursday and then to Tuesday. The damage was done and was canceled.
Shark, The Unit, Jericho, JAG, Touched by an Angel are a few more shows that moved to new days and declined.
So it is a big gamble for CBS to move their shows to different days. Shows that stay in their timeslots are stable for awhile for CBS (NCISs, CSIs, Survivor, Two and a Half Men, Criminal Minds). Shows that move to new days lose viewers.
BBT will likely beat Community but most shows would, it will likely hurt BBT more than Community. TBBT is a great DVR show, 30 Rock and Community are shows that I’ll watch live. Wednesday against dramas and reality shows didn’t work for CBS, going against funnier comedies on Thursdays is going to work better?
TBBT theory will likely bring in the same viewers Survivor does now, 10-12 million viewers and not the what it was getting earlier this year 15-16 million on Mondays or even 14 million.
Will it surprise anyone if CBS cancels CSI:NY, moves CSI:Miami to Fridays, moves Survivor back to Thursdays and moves TBBT back to Mondays next year? No. I do believe in big risk, big reward but I don’t see TBBT having 16 million viewers on Thursdays, I see that on Mondays.
Actually I think that if any show currently on television deserves to be compared to a show as great as Friends, it IS Big Bang Theory. It’s well-written, well-acted, and unlike 90% of the comedies on tv at the moment….ACTUALLY funny.
community will destroy this crap
Please get someone with better spelling and grammar. It’s hard to take reports seriously when they read like a text message.
Also, is this really the best angle that could be taken with the story? Friends has been off the air for five years and it was an instant hit (remember the Rachel?). I like both shows, but they are standard sitcoms at the end of the day, and the question is less about time slot than it is about cultural impact (which both Seinfeld and Friends had).
Creatively, multicam sitcoms died years ago. Community and Modern Family are by far the two most entertaining comedies on television right now. It makes me sad to think that Community will get crushed by that inexplicably popular show.
This.
I just tried looking up BIG BANG THEORY to watch an episode online to see for myself. But in this day and age, neither Hulu nor Fancast nor even CBS itself has full episodes of this show to watch online.
I became a fan of 30 ROCK by catching episodes on Hulu starting in Season 5. I’ve since bought DVDs.
Why the f*#@ doesn’t CBS have BIG BANG THEORY online to view? How do they expect to build an audience if they don’t put it out there?
They lost me because of that. I won’t remember to check again, so there goes a sale. Sure, I’m just one person, but there are lots of people who try first online. WAKE UP CBS!!
I don’t think it’s the fault of CBS that it’s not online. It’s a Warner Bros. show & they seem to have problem with their shows being online.
Big Bang Theory is the ONLY show I watch religiously. The only reason it fell flat at a 9pm anchor was because many fans were expecting it at 9:30, like myself. I don’t watch CBS, so if they change the time slot on me with such short notice I’m screwed.
Also BBT, like Friends, and HIMYM has it’s huge collection of inside jokes that are instantly recognizable. The writing is good because details are never overlooked. Plus Sheldon is the BEST part. This charcter is the force that binds all the other characters yet, if he could have his way, he’d gladly live without human contact. Can’t wait for the 4rth season!
Totally agree with ‘jake’ … though I root for NBC and do hope everything outside of Thursday works for them. However they need to know these single-camera series are just quirky and emmy bait. They can be emmy bait, quirky and still be mutlicamera. I wish CBS teaches NBC a lesson on Thursdays and so NBC can focus on making a better Thursday for the 2011-12 season.
Big Bang Theory is a show people watch and kind of enjoy. Friends was a show people loved.
No one sits around debating whether Leonard and Penny should end up together. No one cares. But the show is just humorous enough to convince us to waste 30 minutes of our lives on it.
where the main character lives.
or
where the main characters live.
The Big Bang Theory will NEVER be Friends. Why? it is simple. Friends captured global appeal and was widely loved across races and genders. It was well balanced with equal female to male ratio which The Big Bang Theory does not have. Friends never got alot of Emmy love and the great James Burrows said at the time he directed the Pilot episode of Friends that the thing that hurt the show and cast was the fact that they were handsome and beautiful and the People’s Choice and that hurt the Emmy love it should have gotten. The Big Bang Theory is limited and restricted in not having the ability to capture a wider based audience. Their appeal is limited to certain groupings and age groupings too.
Community has Chevy Chase and a broad range of racial equity to gather a wider base of viewership. The babyboomers are Chevy Chase and so forth. So each show will do fine with their own groupings and viewership.
As long as Glee and Modern Family are in the running, it will be quite difficult to get Emmy love from all the other offerings out there in sitcom land. And there is cable with Hot In Cleveland with the legendary Betty White, Party Down has its following, some of the new shows coming up too, The Middle with Patricia Heaton, well, life in sitcom land is going to be doing very well and hopefully, television overall will finally be on an upswing for a change.
Friends was not loved across race OR gender. none of the Black people I know watched Friends (if they did it was the original version, Living Single) and not many of the guys I know watched it. it was a CHICKCOM (my wife coined that phrase but feel free to use it) — and the reason it never won any emmy’s was because it was NOT great… it just had a great cast.
The Big Bang Theory isn’t popular? Some people aren’t paying attention. Just because you personally don’t know people that watch it doesn’t mean it’s not popular.
The show has been in the top 10 some weeks and trades places with Two and a Half Men as the most watched comedy on TV. It’s ratings are much higher than How I Met Your Mother and, just last week, it set the record for most paid per episode for first-run syndication at $2 million PER EPISODE ($1.5 million from TBS, $.5 million from Fox O&O stations). Seinfeld was the previous record holder at $1 million per episode.
Friends was averaging 24 million viewers its first season, and 29 million viewers its second season. On its best day Big Bang is lucky to pull in about 15 million viewers. Friends had an impact on pop culture while Big Bang isn’t even a blip on the radar. Blame it on changing media habits or whatever, but back in the 90s it seemed like everybody was watching Friends, they were on every magazine cover, their catchphrases and language became part of the national dialogue; while today, outside of CBS’ regular monday audience, no one is watching or talking about Big Bang theory. My parents enjoy Big Bang Theory while they wait for CSI:Miami to start.
Bazzinga! Friends is not part of popular culture… BTW, what do you understand by “popular culture”?
I actually worked on “Friends” for one and a half seasons. I worked on the show for the first season, when the show was on Warner Bros. Stage 5 and part of the second season on Stage 24. Coincidentally, years later, I also worked with Kaley on “8 Simple Rules”.
IMHO Kaley is a naturally a more talented actress and naturally funnier than any of the “Friends” cast. She was almost like the teenage female version of John Ritter.
While the “Friends” cast was all very talented too, the success of the show I think can be laid at the feet of James Burrows. They weren’t “naturals” like Kaley. He put the “Friends” cast through sitcom boot camp. On Show night we were there until 1:00AM. The cast of “Friends” learned well…
That said, unlike “Big Bang”, “Friends” was a true phenomenon. There were overflow audience members, that couldn’t get in at the beginning of the show, waiting to get in to see the show at midnight to watch pick-up shot, after the the main audience had gone home.
“Why the f*#@ doesn’t CBS have BIG BANG THEORY online to view? How do they expect to build an audience if they don’t put it out there?”
Chuck Lorre, the Exec Producer, attributes the success of his shows (2.35 Men and TBBT) to the fact that the only place to view them is when it airs. He refuses to post episodes online and won’t allow them to be available on demand. As someone who does not own a TiVo or VCR, I am looking forward to this move to Thursday creating a great comedy block with TBBT/30 Rock/The Office.
My friends all like the show. It reminds us of the lovable dorks in our college dorm. We even had an astrophysicist-in-the-making from India.
Two and a half men can be seen On Demand. I have Time Warner cable and it’s on their primetime CBS On Demand channel.
Technically, it’s not him. He said at Comic-Con last year that he has no control of when and where his show can be viewed.
Big bang better writing than friends? That is such a ridiculous statement. Every episode and I mean every one was so well written. It was the perfect combination of acting directing and writing. It is this concept that seems to elude NBC and im glad that big bang will finally show up NBC.
Must be why Friends won all those Emmy’s for the writing. Oh, wait, no they didn’t. Not even one. Just because you liked a show doesn’t mean it was well written. I give you as proof any and all of the CSI shows.
Big Bang is no Friends.
And comedies on Thursday nights have never worked on CBS.
Absolutely true. People are habitual creatures. They can change the TV schedule but people won’t change their viewing habits.
If people want comedy on Thursday nights, they’ll get it from the network that they are used to watching comedies.
Fox was actually the first to undermine NBC’s dominance in 1990 when it moved then-new hit THE SIMPSONS to 8:00 against The Cosby Show, killing the Cosby demos.
NBC Comedy Must-See-TV Thursday line up will, at the end of the day, prevail!
I’m in Australia and I can tell you that Big Bang is a big ratings success here now and is increasing its popularity all the time (when the DVD was recently released here, it was sold out at first). So don’t presume it doesn’t have international traction, because it does.
Oh please, Australia has a population of 22 million people. Being big in such a market doesn’t make a series a global phenomenon. Otherwise series like Smallville would be renowned as such, being one of the highest rated US imports in the Latin American market.
Friends was big pretty much everywhere. Not only in the US and Canada, but in the UK, Europe, Middle East, parts of Africa, most of the Indian subcontinent, the Far East and even South America. I imagine it was big in Australia too.
Not as big in Latin America because it was not easy to pay cable in the 90′s!
I don’t think I can compare these guys to ‘Friends’. After all, I don’t want to see the cast of The Big Bang Theory shot at a firing squad and have their bodies run over with a tractor.
Two and a Half Men is Joey & Ross with his son Ben.
Big Bang will be back to Mondays by January.