THE SKED: New Fall Show On-Air Promotion -- Update through Sep 11

With network on-air promotion activity tracked in hit summer shows (those near or above a 2.0 Adult 18-49 rating) for about seven weeks since mid-July, the networks' promotional priorities are summarized below.


As we head into Premiere Week starting Monday, September 19, NBC has put the vast majority of on-air promotion time in recent days toward Up All Night, which gets an early preview this Wednesday (September 14) at 10:00 pm after the season finale of America's Got Talent.  Up All Night is now up to 840 promotional seconds within hit summer programs on NBC, still clearly the #1 new show priority for the network.  Free Agents follows Up All Night on Wednesday at 10:30 and has received only 200 seconds since mid-July.  NBC is obviously hoping Free Agents benefits from a pumped-up lead-in, but comedy at 10:30 has always proved difficult as people rapidly turn off the television and prepare for bed during the 10 pm hour.  Look for a steep drop at 10:30, although the final verdict on both comedies can't be determined until they have settled into their regular 8:00 and 8:30 pm time periods for several weeks.    




ABC continues to heavily push Revenge (now up to 735 promotional seconds since mid-July).  This kind of massive bombardment can often boost the rating of the first episode, but if the show does not live up to the advertising, the audience declines in weeks two through four can be massive, making all the promotional activity a waste of time.  In fact, regardless of how much marketing support a new show gets, it is wise to not pay undue attention to the premiere telecast.  As noted above, weeks two through four (and sometimes six) provide the best indication of how a show will fare throughout the fall and the entire season, if the new show makes it that far.  


CBS continues to place almost equal bets on Person of Interest and Unforgettable (each with 500-540 promotional seconds).  Please note, the promo totals for each show are not directly comparable across networks because the number of hours measured for each network varies.  (That is, some networks have more hit-level hours than others do.)  Nonetheless, the promo-second counts are indeed comparable within a network's list of shows.

FOX on-air promotion tallies are unchanged from last week due to DVR error.