Comedytime Saturday

Comedytime Saturday is the official branding for a one-hour programming block that began with the 2011–12 United States network television schedule on CBS between 8 and 9 p.m. ET/PT on Saturday nights. The branding is only listed by industry sources as a placeholder for the time slot, and not as an official on-air branding. The placeholder timeslot is also the lead-in to CBS' Crimetime Saturday lineup, which was reduced by an hour to accommodate the change. Originally conceived as a vehicle for at least one first-run sitcom (thus reviving the practice of programming entertainment programs on Saturday nights for the first time in several years), the block currently airs two reruns of CBS sitcoms from earlier in the week.

The first half-hour of the block was originally to comprise first-run episodes of Rules of Engagement, which would have moved from the Thursday time slot it held at the end of the 2010-11 television season, mainly to allow that program to build up enough episodes for syndication. (By doing so, Rules was to have become the first scripted first-run series to air on a broadcast network on Saturday night, excluding already-canceled series, since 2005.) However, Engagement's Saturday run was held back as the premiere of the new sitcom How to Be a Gentleman, which took the place of Engagement in its Thursday timeslot, struggled, and after two weeks, the network announced that Engagement would premiere and remain in that Thursday timeslot on October 20, 2011, with new episodes of Gentlemen moving to the second half-hour of the Saturday block, effectively being burned off on Saturday nights without CBS actually classifying it as a canceled program. (The network traditionally does not announce any official program cancellations until the May upfronts, in contrast to other American networks.)^[1] After one airing in the Comedytime Saturday block where a new episode of Gentlemen dropped half the audience of the Two and a Half Men rerun leading into it, How to Be a Gentleman was canceled with six completed episodes left unaired.^[2]

With no original programming, Comedytime Saturday will consist solely of reruns of CBS's Monday and Thursday night sitcoms (How I Met Your Mother, 2 Broke Girls, Two and a Half Men, Mike & Molly, The Big Bang Theory or Rules of Engagement). The time slot will also be used for special programming in holiday periods along with a Republican presidential debate which aired in mid-November.

References

1. ^ Andreeva, Nellie (7 October 2011). "CBS Relegates ‘How To Be A Gentleman’ To Saturdays, Replaces It With ‘Rules Of Engagement’". Deadline Hollywood, Penske Media Corporation. http://www.deadline.com/2011/10/cbs-demotes-how-to-be-a-gentleman-to-saturdays-replaces-it-with-rules-of-engagement/. Retrieved 8 October 2011. 
2. ^ http://www.deadline.com/2011/10/how-to-be-a-gentleman-pulled-from-saturdays-after-one-airing/