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Thursday Nights Most Competitive This Fall

NBC’s My Name is Earl will run a close race with CBS’s Survivor, perhaps edging it out on Thursday nights at 8 p.m. next season, if results from Phi Power’s poll are borne out. The poll, conducted May 19-23, also shows that CBS’s Without a Trace will do very well among older viewers (though sagging in younger viewers) against ABC’s usually dominant Sunday schedule, Media Life writes. Across the networks, the new dramas seem to be more exciting to viewers than the comedies - however, no new show scored particularly well, according to the article. But that is to be expected, as the new programs are still unfamiliar and promotion had barely started when the poll was conducted.

Leading newcomers include Justice, Shark, Six Degrees, Vanished and Heroes.

Geoff Huntington, Phi Power’s evp of research and program development and the former NBC vp of program research, says that Thursdays will be very competitive. Deal or No Deal is a “wild card” at 9 p.m., and it looks as though ER may return to dominance at 10 p.m. However, both new rivals, Shark and Six Degrees, attracted a respectable number of viewers in the poll, Huntington says. The popular Grey’s Anatomy’s switch to Thursdays adds another element of competition to the mix.

Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays will also have close races.

Huntington pointed out that NBC announced its revised schedule after the poll went to field, which may reduce some of the study’s utility.