TUESDAY
CRAIG’S PREDICTIONS: 8:00 The Voice; 9:00 Rise; 10:00 This Is Us
SHILO’S PREDICTIONS: 8:00 The Voice; 9:00 This Is Us; 10:00 Rise
ACTUAL SCHEDULE: 8:00 The Voice; 9:00 Superstore; 9:30 The Good Place; 10:00 Chicago Fire
CRAIG: NBC’s moves for Tuesday might also be the most shocking… and I’ll be the first to admit that this gamble could (a) hurt This Is Us and (b) ultimately damage their hot Tuesday night in the process. I also see the scenario where I’ll be very wrong, that NBC’s quest to bring “Must See TV” back to Thursdays could be a successful one, but, again, we’ll see. On the bright side, the Voice lead-in and comfortable Chicago Fire lead-out should help Superstore and The Good Place, but NBC might not have the Tuesday night dominance they would have had if they had just kept things as they were.
SHILO: In a vacuum, I understand why NBC would want to free up Tuesdays. The Voice is still a potent lead-in, Chicago Fire is lead-in independent and controls its time slot, and none of the other networks have a breakout at 9:00, so they figure they should get something sampled while The Voice is still strong without damaging Chicago Fire. But I don’t know, comedies after The Voice has never been a great strategy (RIP About a Boy, Growing Up Fisher, Marry Me, Go On, The New Normal, One Big Happy, and Undateable), the 9:00 comedies will have to deal with comedy hours on both FOX (The Mick/Brooklyn Nine-Nine) and ABC (Black-ish/The Mayor), and hoping a third season show that already had massive Olympic promotion and a post-Voice series premiere will pop in this time slot feels a bit wasteful. I get wanting to protect the comedies because their brand is still pretty shallow; it’s just that I don’t think there’s much more sampling to wring from Superstore, so it’s probably not going to do well enough to justify the time slot upgrade.
