THURSDAY
SHILO: 8:00 Superstore; 8:30 Village Gazette; 9:00 Brooklyn Nine-Nine; 9:30 The Good Place; 10:00 Law & Order: SVU
CRAIG: 8:00 Superstore; 8:30 Brooklyn Nine-Nine; 9:00 The Good Place; 9:30 Will & Grace; 10:00 Law & Order: SVU
SHILO: Oh, NBC Thursdays. For as strong as NBC is earlier in the week, this is when their Live + Same Day strength really takes a dip. There were some relative bright spots on Thursdays this season (e.g. Superstore, Law & Order: SVU, Will & Grace), but it became a lineup filled with ratings sinkholes and shows whose strength lay in avenues other than L+SD, so figuring out how to foster new comedies while preserving show that are benefiting NBC in one way or another is a tough ask. With Superstore gaining strength the longer the 2018-19 season went on, I think now is a good time for NBC to use it on a new comedy in the fall; Village Gazette is executive produced by Lorne Michaels and Seth Meyers, giving it instant clout, and sounds like something that’s compatible with Superstore and right in the NBC comedy strike zone.
While Brooklyn Nine-Nine shouldn’t be on the fall schedule on account of its poor L+SD ratings showing in its first NBC season, I think NBC is going to want to bank episodes of its streaming/international hit and they’ve treated the show too good this season for me to think they’ll significantly downgrade it in 2019-20. Considering its early renewals are to have it ready for fall and its recent Golden Globes success, The Good Place won’t be pushed to midseason. NBC did show that it’s willing to move the acclaimed comedy this season, though, as it finished out its order at 9:30, and I think having it at 9:30 vs. Brooklyn Nine-Nine helps the 10:00 drama.
As far as that, Thursdays at 10:00 is a rough slot for NBC considering the weakness of the 8:00 – 10:00 bloc. It’s not the place for them to launch a new drama, especially considering how strong Monday and Tuesday are, while the Chicagos aren’t moving this season and they didn’t find a promising new drama this midseason. I think both sophomore dramas New Amsterdam and Manifest would get eaten alive here and NBC seems to like both enough that I don’t think they’ll throw either away like that. It helps that SVU did a fine job in its first season here this year, so I think NBC allows its elder statesman to take the hit and (possibly) finish its run in peace.
CRAIG: I’m going to be weird here, and stack the night with established series through the whole night, though your placing of Village Gazette at 9:30 makes a lot of sense.
Instead, I’ve got Brooklyn Nine-Nine coming out of and ideally helping Superstore. 9PM leads off with The Good Place, not Will & Grace like some might expect. Why? I feel W&G and Mom may have the same audience, but also Will & Grace could lead well into SVU. All in all, it is important to at least try and stay in the game on Thursdays, even though Football on FOX may crush them.
