Media Life Magazine - For USA, a bold move beyond Fridays

Homepage

Alternative media

Cable

Classifieds

Magazines

Media economy

New media

Newspapers

Out of Home

People

Rachel speaks

Radio

Research

Television

TV Reviews

Webinars

Media Economy Newsletter

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Last week

Yearly Archives

About us

Subscribe

Advertise

Contact us

Write to the editor

Press releases

Post a classified

For USA, a bold
move beyond Fridays

No. 1 network begins slotting shows on other nights

By Louisa Ada Seltzer
Jan 19, 2010

Share |

USA has been the top network on cable for the past two years, delivering record numbers and programming a mix of new and veteran scripted hits. So it's a bit of a surprise that, coming off a year in which its primetime audience grew 14 percent, the channel is shaking up its lineup.

In the past, USA aired many of its shows, including "Monk," "Psych" and "White Collar," on Friday nights. Starting this week, however, USA is branching out from Fridays.

"Collar" returns tonight in its new 10 p.m. Tuesday timeslot. Going forward, the network will not be airing new shows on Fridays, instead spreading them throughout the week in hopes of drawing bigger audiences on nights where more people are at home watching TV.

"Collar" was already drawing strong numbers on Friday, where it got a huge boost from airing behind the final season of "Monk" last fall.

Like most cable shows, "Collar's" season is split into two halves. The show, about a con man who is sprung from jail to help an FBI agent track down criminals, averaged 5.68 million total viewers and 2.04 million adults 18-49 during the first half of its debut season, according to Nielsen.

That ranked second among all new shows on cable last year on both counts, behind only USA's "Royal Pains."

But "Collar" will face stiffer competition on Tuesdays. Tonight it airs against CBS's "The Good Wife" and NBC's "The Jay Leno Show," which performs much better on Tuesday than Fridays.

If the show can hang on to most of its first-half audience, that should help USA in its efforts to build up more nights of original programming. If not, it can always move back to Friday in season two.

A look at this week’s top TV draws
TUESDAY, JANUARY 19
Time	Network	Program	Description
8 p.m.	Fox	“American Idol” (R)	More auditions, this time in Chicago.
8 p.m.	NBC	“Biggest Loser: Couples” (R)	One of the contestants gets heated with Jillian and Bob and thinks about leaving the show.
9 p.m.	ESPN	“College Basketball” (S)	Purdue, a Big Ten favorite, takes on surprising Illinois.
9 p.m.	BBC America	“Last Restaurant Standing” (R)	The six teams get a few days to deck out their empty spaces.
9 p.m.	ESPN2	“Tennis” (S)	Early-round coverage of the year’s first major tournament, the Australian Open.
10 p.m.	Oxygen	“Bad Girls Club” (R)	This week it’s Amber and Flo who go toe to toe.
10 p.m.	USA	“White Collar” (D)	Neal and Peter try to nab corrupt Wall Street brokers.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20
Time	Network	Program	Description
7 a.m.	ABC	“Good Morning America’” (N)	Comedian Steve Harvey guests and discusses dating.
7 p.m.	ESPN	“College Basketball” (S)	A good ACC matchup between North Carolina and Wake Forest.
8 p.m.	Fox	“American Idol” (R)	Another round of auditions, with Orlando the destination.
9 p.m.	CBS	“Criminal Minds” (D)	The crew looks into teen suicides in Wyoming.
9 p.m.	ABC	“Modern Family” (C)	Chazz Palminteri guests as an old friend of Jay's.
9 p.m.	Fox	“Human Target” (D)	Now in its regular post-“Idol” timeslot after Sunday's debut.
10 p.m.	CBS	“CSI: NY” (D)	A Lingerie Football League player is murdered in a locker room hot tub. Shockingly, it's not even sweeps.
THURSDAY, JANUARY 21
Time	Network	Program	Description
8 p.m.	CW	“The Vampire Diaries” (D)	Stefan tries to get Bonnie to accept her powers.
8 p.m.	Fox	“Bones” (D)	Brennan and the team begin work on a super-secret case.
8 p.m.	TNT	“NBA Basketball” (S)	A finals preview? The Lakers take on the Cavs in Cleveland.
9 p.m.	ABC	“Grey’s Anatomy” (D)	Izzie hopes to resolve her issues with Alex.
9 p.m.	NBC	“The Office” (C)	Michael, Dwight, Andy and Pam try to get on the good side of a potential Dunder Mifflin buyer.
9 p.m.	CBS	“CSI” (D)	A golf pro is murdered during a big tournament.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 22
Time	Network	Program	Description
8 p.m.	CBS	“Ghost Whisperer” (D)	A hospital patient is haunted by a ghost.
8 p.m.	NBC	“Law & Order” (D)	An entire family is found murdered in their home.
8 p.m.	Disney Channel	“The Wizards of Waverly Place” (C)	A special hour-long episode should bring in a slew of young viewers.
9 p.m.	CBS	“Medium” (D)	Allison dreams about a schizophrenic girl, and then she appears in real life.
9 p.m.	Syfy	“Caprica” (D)	Series premiere. Esai Morales and Eric Stoltz star in a series set 50 years before the “Battlestar Galactica” series.
10 p.m.	CBS	“Numb3rs” (D)	A killer targets guys who pay for prostitutes.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 23
Time	Network	Program	Description
Noon	CBS	“College Basketball” (S)	Should be a good Big Ten game between Michigan State and Minnesota.
3 p.m.	NBC	“Figure Skating” (S)	Prepare for the Olympics with the U.S. Championships.
4 p.m.	CBS	“College Basketball” (S)	Another good game, this one a nonconference battle between Texas and UConn.
8 p.m.	Fox	“Cops” (R)	Cops in California respond to a minor accident, which actually turns out to be a multicar pileup.
9:45 p.m.	HBO	“Boxing” (S)	Steven Luevano tries to defend his featherweight title against undefeated Juan Manuel Lopez.
10 p.m.	Comedy Central	“Artie Lange: Jack and Coke” (C)	Despite Lange's suicide attempt a few weeks ago, Comedy Central is going ahead with this special.
SUNDAY, JANUARY 24
Time	Network	Program	Description
3 p.m.	CBS	“NFL Football” (S)	The AFC championship game.
6:30 p.m.	Fox	“NFL Football” (S)	The NFC championship game.
9 p.m.	NBC	“Figure Skating” (S)	More coverage of the U.S. Championships.
9 p.m.	HBO	“Big Love” (D)	Bill, Nicki and Cara Lynn travel to Washington, D.C.
10 p.m.	E!	“Keeping Up with the Kardashians” (R)	Bruce signs the family up to volunteer at a boxing event.
9 p.m.	Food Network	“Iron Chef America” (R)	A Minneapolis chef takes on Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto.
A = awards show or special, C = comedy, D = drama, DD = daytime drama, G = game show, K = kids, M = movie, N = news/documentary, R = reality, S = sports, T = talk/variety show.