Friday Night Showings

1.) Friday nights on network television are very bland with not a large selection to choose from, however network television makes sure that those who are staying home have something to watch to satisfy their appetite for entertainment. The genres on Friday night vary for the different audiences. ABC and Fox both offer Friday night movies followed by local programming or the news. This allows for a drama or comedy film to be shown. CBS however, has an entire night of drama with shows such as Ghost Whisperer, NUMB3RS and Swingtown. This varies greatly from NBC which focuses on having a comedy show, and then news, or with The CW which show the WWE Friday Night Smackdown! and satisfies those with a type of action show.

2.) The networks put the shows together based on who may be watching them and both block progamming and counter programming can be seen on the Friday night line up. On CBS, the entire line up is drama shows for the prime time viewers. Although, these dramas may provide action or suspense in them as well, we can see these are quite serious shows in comparison to WWE Smackdown. ABC on Fridays shows a movie and then 20/20. If movie were to be a drama, then the line up on ABC would be all drama shows across the prime time line up. CBS and ABC are both displaying networks that use block programming to target its audience. They are providing their viewers with a particular type of program and provide this for the entire evening, expecting them to watch television from the beginning of the evening until the local evening news comes on. Networks use block programming to attract a certain audience and hold onto them all evening.
3.) While CBS starts their Friday night with the drama Ghost Whisperer, NBC begins with the show Most Outrageous Moments and while Fox may show a movie, The CW is starting with the WWE Smackdown! These shows are different types of shows on different networks at the same time. Networks do this in order to attract different types of audiences. These are two examples of counter programming. Networks do this so that while one may be trying to attract families, another can attract the adults of a household. This is done in order to bring in different types of people to programs and gain viewers.

Networks display other similarties than genre for the Friday night programs. On CBS all the the shows are not only dramas, but they are all drama sitcoms. They attract viewers each week to keep up with what is going on in the program. The programs also have the similarity of attracting a certain audience. Both Fox and ABCare trying to attract an adult or family audience with the Friday Movie Night. CBS is drawing in on the adult audience and NBC is hoping to pull in a family audience with funny home video shows like Most Outrageous Moments. None of these networks are trying to brand an identity of only showing a certain type of show because on other nights their programming is quite different. These networks show the shows they do on Friday nights because they know the majority of the population that is home on Friday nights are either older adults or families with young children and so the shows must be suitable to fit the age groups. There is no point in showing young hip shows like Grey's Anatomy on Friday night when most young people are not going to be home.
4.) None of the top rated shows for the 2007-2008 season or for last week are shown on Friday night. The shows that are on television are dramas or family friendly shows. The networks are competiting to fit the older and family age groups, which is why they show the dramas and family shows, or show movies. The top rated shows do not need to be shown on Friday nights because the majority of the population is not at home on Friday night. There would be no point in showing the best shows at that time.

Group: Erika, Rollie, William