The Battle of Friday Night; What Will You Watch?

With Friday nights starting in September looking like the coolest night on TV, the big question is -- can all these shows survive on the same night? Between the five broadcast networks (CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, CW) we have: Supernatural, Nikita, Fringe, Grimm, Chuck and A Gifted Man. For those who dont know, Grimm is set in the modern day with an investigator on the hunt for Supernatural happenings that  involve the Grimm fairytales. A Gifted Man is also set in the modern day where a brilliant surgeon is in constant contact with the ghost of his dead wife.

The way the schedule is set out, at 8pm we have Chuck, Nikita and A Gifted Man, while an hour later, Fringe, Grimm and Supernatural are being shown. There is reason to believe each show will succeed and fail in equal measure. Supernatural, which many believed would end at the conclusion of its fifth season with the exit of their show runner Eric Kripke, came back stronger than ever in their Friday slot with a new show runner in place. The sixth season held up well, making it one of the most watched shows on the CW, and proved to be a perfect partner with Smallville. With the show averaging 2.2 million viewers for its sixth season, and that was with Fringe in the same timeslot, I believe the Winchester-brothers audience will stay as solid as it has been. However, saying all that, an eighth season is very doubtful given the wishes of its primary actors to move on to bigger but not necessarily better things.

Nikita on the other hand I am not too sure about. Being shipped off to Fridays at 8 in its second year does not indicate the CW has that much confidence in the Maggie Q action series. After a positive start leading out of the Vampire Diaries on Thursdays, the show took a tumble and averaged a little under 2 million viewers for its last 8 episodes. A worrying trend indeed. And now Nikita is being asked to anchor the night for the CW on Fridays! And going against Chuck in particular, which is fighting for the same audience may prove too much for Nikita. For me the shows only chance is that people were put off the show due to its Thursday time slot which is very competitive. Having it on a quieter night might actually do some good. All in all though I predict Nikita will lose a chunk of the Smallville audience numbers for that slot and will average about 1.8 million viewers. That could still be enough for an eventual third season though, all depending on the overall health of the CW schedule next May.

Fringe, which is keeping its 9pm slot is living on borrowed time! Considering Fox canned their five bubble shows (Human Target, Lie To Me, Chicago Code, Traffic Lights, Breaking In) which were all delivering more viewers than Fringe, suggest the season 4 renewal was more of a kind gesture to the fans than a smart business decision. The one thing Fringe has going for it, is that it has gave Fox a boost in their target demographics on Fridays. That alone though will not be enough to grant it a fifth season. The show began its Friday night life earlier this year with 4.5 million viewers but quickly fell to around the 3 and a half. And given the fact Fringe is still going up against Supernatural and now Grimm in the mix, I'm predicting that the show will only do an average of 3.3 million viewers, and will conclude for good after its fourth season. Luckily for Fringe fans, the Josh Jackson led show was granted 22 episodes, which I firmly believe the network will honor. Look for Fringe to air its series finale next May. Consider Fringe lucky, I'm sure everyone remembers the way Fox canned Firefly after only 13 episodes and that was doing better than Fringe on Friday nights.

Chuck is leaving its Monday home, which it has had for the past four years, for the charming Friday night slot of 8pm. Everyone is under the impression that Chucks fifth season will be its final one. It has only been granted a 13 episode order and no one expects NBC to cave in this time to fan pressure and extend the order past 13, which it has done in previous years. For its fourth season, the Zachary Levi led spy dramedy averaged 5.3 million viewers. It has lost viewers every season the show has been on the air. Not only is Chuck expected to follow that trend again, but expect the show to lose followers due to the timeslot change. I am predicting that for Chuck's fifth and final season, an average audience of 4.5 million viewers is likely.

Following on from Chuck on the peacock network is Grimm. Straight away, one massive plus is that the fairytale drama is being executive produced by David Greenwalt, who worked on Buffy and Angel. This seems right up his street, in the realm of fantasy and the supernatural. This is going to be quite an episodic show, a detective/investigator solving crimes that involve the Grimm fairytales. Now this I am interested in. From the early trailers, its looks good, dark, gothic in tone and has a nice style to it. NBC chiefs also said at the upfronts recently that they really liked this show and hope it does well - me too. However, the Friday 9pm slot already features Fringe and Supernatural - and all three will be competing for the same audience. And leading out of Chuck, which wont exactly have a huge audience to pass on, my fear is Grimm may be an early casualty. One thing that could be in its favor though is DVR (digital video recorder) numbers. Friday night shows are among the most DVR'd and networks are looking at those figures more and more closely. If Grimm can average a solid 6 million viewers on the night and does good DVR numbers, then we could be seeing -- hopefully, alot of the Grimm fairytales brought to life for several seasons to come....... don't hold your breath though.

A Gifted Man is being broadcast by CBS, Friday at 8pm and stars Julie Benz and Patrick Wilson. The eye network has had mild success in the 8pm hour with supernatural-type shows, Ghost Whisperer and Medium being the obvious ones. And A Gifted Man seems to fit that mold too. These CBS shows normally go after an older audience than the others mentioned above, so competition for the Chuck and Nikita audience wont be that cut throat. However, seeing that CBS have cancelled 4 shows (Ghost Whisperer, Medium, Chaos and The Defenders) in this 8pm slot in less than two years, certainly puts a hell if alot of pressure on this Patrick Wilson led show. Early buzz and footage have brought positive feedback from critics and test audiences alike. CBS will be hoping for a 9 million viewer plus average. My prediction is that wont quite happen. I'm expecting the ghostly drama to bring in 8 million viewers (not including DVR numbers). All in all, Friday nights are going to get alot more attention than ever before.

There will be alot of competition for the 18-35 year old audience and DVR useage will be working overtime. I am looking forward to seeing those first night numbers in September. There will be winners and losers and no doubt not everyone will be happy. But the real question here is -- what will YOU be watching?