NBC has found it difficult expanding the "Must See" franchise beyond Thursday, though not for lack of trying. Despite mediocre results with sitcoms Monday and Wednesday this season, the network will schedule a record 18 comedies across five nights in the fall.
NBC Entertainment President Warren Littlefield explained that the network is "trying to spread out our offense" to new nights. Despite losing viewers, NBC ruled the demographic race by the widest margin in a decade--when Bill Cosby was on its schedule--and scored the first back-to-back prime-time wins since CBS won three consecutive years, ending in 1993-94.
As for Cosby, his new CBS program was far from a runaway hit but did become the highest-rated comedy to open a night at 8 p.m. since his last show a dozen years ago.
Fox not only improved compared to last season but launched one of the few new-series hits in "King of the Hill," which successfully bridged the gap between "The Simpsons" and "The X-Files" Sunday nights. Moving "X-Files" also bore ratings dividends that more than offset the decline experienced Fridays by replacing it with a new show, "Millennium."
