Must See TV

Title card for NBC's 2002 special, 20 Years of Must See TV

"Must See TV" is an advertising slogan used by the NBC television network to brand its prime time blocks of sitcoms during the 1990s, and most often applied to the network's Thursday night lineup, which featured such popular sitcoms as The Cosby Show, Family Ties, Cheers, Night Court, A Different World, Seinfeld, Wings, Frasier, Friends, NewsRadio, and Will & Grace (as well as such drama series as Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, and ER) and allowed NBC to dominate prime time ratings on Thursday nights in the 1980s and 1990s.

Usage

In popular culture the phrase is most strongly associated with the network's entire Thursday night lineup, including both sitcoms and dramas, which dominated the ratings from the 1980s through late 1990s.

However, contrary to popular belief, "Must See TV" originally applied to sitcoms only (dramas would normally be promoted separately), and for much of the 1990s the phrase was used several nights a week as an attempt at brand extension. At one point in the fall of 1997, the brand was used five nights a week, with four sitcoms a night from Monday to Thursday, and two on Sunday.^[1] NBC itself would later adopt the more common interpretation; the 2002 retrospective, 20 Years of Must See TV, focused on NBC's overall Thursday-night dominance from 1982 onwards, and overlooked extensions such as "Must See TV Tuesday."

Advertising

Thursday nights are coveted by advertisers due to the large proportion of young, affluent viewers who tune in. Of particular interest, movie advertisers promote their titles to this target demographic on Thursday night, in hopes of influencing what movies they see on the following Friday night, the traditional opening night for most films outside of holiday periods.^[2]

The slogan made its first appearance in NBC promotions in August 1993 and included the day of the week: "Must See TV Thursday." In late summer of 1993, NBC wanted viewers to tune in an hour prior to the popular Seinfeld, and created the "Must See TV" slogan to brand the comedy block. The first "Must See TV" block promo aired during late summer repeats and promoted Mad About You, Wings, and Seinfeld – Frasier had not yet premiered. It ended with the words "Get home early for Must See TV Thursday." The "Must See TV" slogan continued in every NBC Thursday night comedy promo throughout the 1993 television season to promote the 8 – 10 p.m. comedy block. When Frasier and Wings moved to Tuesday nights, NBC expanded the second season of the "Must See TV" brand to include the Tuesday night comedy block: "Must See TV Tuesday."

Branding the quality Thursday night line-up began as early as the 1982 fall slogan, "America's Best Night of Television on Television."

On November 3, 1994, NBC's Thursday night lineup features the "blackout Thursday", where three of four sitcoms on primetime had a storyline involving a power outage.^[3] Starting with Mad About You episode "Pandora's Box", where Paul Buchman accidentally causes the blackout while trying to steal cable; continuing with Friends episode "The One with the Blackout", where Chandler is trapped in an ATM vestibule with Victoria's Secret model Jill Goodacre; then a Seinfeld non-blackout episode "The Gymnast"; and ending with Madman of the People episode "Birthday in the Big House".

Decline

From a promo for "Comedy Night Done Right" in October 2007. The image features [From Left] Earl Hickey (of My Name Is Earl), Michael Scott (of The Office), John Dorian (of Scrubs) and Liz Lemon (of 30 Rock).

By the early 2000s, the "Must See TV" slogan had fallen by the wayside in NBC's promotions; more importantly, NBC had gone from the top-rated network on Thursday nights to second behind CBS, eventually third behind ABC and ultimately a very distant fourth behind Fox as well. Some of the reasons for NBC's failure in recent years on Thursdays was due to the lack of strong shows to replace staples such as Friends, Frasier and Seinfeld. Another reason was due to the Donald Trump reality series The Apprentice, which broke the traditional "Must See TV" line up containing four comedies and one drama when it debuted in winter 2004. However, most of the NBC lineup still finished in the top 20 weekly shows according to Nielsen Media Research.^[4]

Other networks' Thursday programming have also gotten increasingly stronger. CBS was first to break through with the Thursday-night schedule of Survivor, CSI, and later Without a Trace. ABC had success on Thursday nights with its hit reality series, Dancing with the Stars. In fall 2006, Grey's Anatomy was moved to Thursdays to counter CSI; ABC's lineup of Ugly Betty and Grey's Anatomy has proved successful in the 18-49-year-old demographic.

The "Must See TV" slogan reappeared briefly in early 2006 with the addition of two critically acclaimed and ratings-successful comedies, My Name Is Earl and The Office. This was an attempt to re-establish a four-sitcom block after the rise and fall of The Apprentice, which was moved to Monday nights.

In November 2006, NBC rebranded the Thursday format with a new different slogan, "Comedy Night Done Right", and added Scrubs and 30 Rock to the lineup, forming an entire lineup of comedy series without laugh tracks or the multiple-camera setup typical of past Must See TV comedies.^[5]

In January 2011, NBC rebranded the night once again, renaming it "Comedy Night Done Right - All Night", adding a third hour of comedies at 10pm. The three hour comedy block will be disbanded in the fall of 2011, when the night reverts back to two hours of comedies.

NBC Thursday-night lineup history

     Lime indicates the #1 most-watched program of the season.^[6]

     Yellow indicates the top-10 most-watched programs of the season.

     Cyan indicates the top-20 most watched programs of the season.

     Magenta indicates the top-30 most watched programs of the season.

     Orange indicates the top-40 most watched programs of the season.

     Silver indicates the top-50 most watched programs of the season.

Season		8:00 PM	8:30 PM	9:00 PM	9:30 PM	10:00 PM	10:30 PM
Pre-Must See TV
1980–1981	Fall	Games People Play		NBC Thursday Night Movie
	Winter	Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
	Spring
1981–1982	Fall	Harper Valley	Lewis & Clark	Diff'rent Strokes	Gimme a Break	Hill Street Blues
	Winter	Fame
	Spring
Must See TV
1982–1983	Fall	Fame		Cheers	Taxi	Hill Street Blues
	Winter			Gimme a Break	Cheers
	Spring
1983–1984	Fall	Gimme a Break	Mama's Family	We Got It Made	Cheers	Hill Street Blues
	Winter		Family Ties	Cheers	Buffalo Bill
	Spring
1984–1985	Fall	The Cosby Show	Family Ties	Cheers	Night Court	Hill Street Blues
	Winter
	Spring
1985–1986	Fall	The Cosby Show	Family Ties	Cheers	Night Court	Hill Street Blues
	Winter
	Spring
1986–1987	Fall	The Cosby Show	Family Ties	Cheers	Night Court	Hill Street Blues
	Winter					L.A. Law
	Spring				Nothing in Common
1987–1988	Fall	The Cosby Show	A Different World	Cheers	Night Court	L.A. Law
	Winter
	Spring				Day by Day and The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd
1988–1989	Fall	The Cosby Show	A Different World	Cheers	Dear John	L.A. Law
	Winter
	Spring
1989–1990	Fall	The Cosby Show	A Different World	Cheers	Dear John	L.A. Law
	Winter				Grand
	Spring				Wings
1990–1991	Fall	The Cosby Show	A Different World	Cheers	Grand	L.A. Law
	Winter				Wings
	Spring				Seinfeld
1991–1992	Fall	The Cosby Show	A Different World	Cheers	Wings	L.A. Law
	Winter
	Spring
1992–1993	Fall	A Different World	Rhythm & Blues	Cheers	Wings	L.A. Law
	Winter	Out All Night	A Different World
	Spring	Cheers	Wings		Seinfeld
1993–1994	Fall	Mad About You	Wings	Seinfeld	Frasier	L.A. Law
	Winter					Homicide: Life on the Street
	Spring					L.A. Law
1994–1995	Fall	Mad About You	Friends	Seinfeld	Madman of the People	ER
	Winter
	Spring		Hope & Gloria		Friends
1995–1996	Fall	Friends	The Single Guy	Seinfeld	Caroline in the City	ER
	Winter
	Spring		Boston Common
1996–1997	Fall	Friends	The Single Guy	Seinfeld	Suddenly Susan	ER
	Winter		Suddenly Susan		The Naked Truth
	Spring				Fired Up
1997–1998	Fall	Friends	Union Square	Seinfeld	Veronica's Closet	ER
	Winter		Just Shoot Me
	Spring
1998–1999	Fall	Friends	Jesse	Frasier	Veronica's Closet	ER
	Winter
	Spring		Will & Grace
1999–2000	Fall	Friends	Jesse	Frasier	Stark Raving Mad	ER
	Winter
	Spring		Daddio		Battery Park
2000–2001	Fall	Friends	Cursed/The Weber Show	Will & Grace	Just Shoot Me	ER
	Winter
	Spring
2001–2002	Fall	Friends	Inside Schwartz	Will & Grace	Just Shoot Me	ER
	Winter		Leap of Faith
	Spring		Friends
2002–2003	Fall	Friends	Scrubs	Will & Grace	Good Morning, Miami	ER
	Winter
	Spring
2003–2004	Fall	Friends	Scrubs and Friends	Will & Grace	Coupling and Scrubs	ER
	Winter		Will & Grace	The Apprentice
	Spring		Friends	Will & Grace	Scrubs
2004–2005	Fall	Joey	Will & Grace	The Apprentice		ER
	Winter
	Spring
2005–2006	Fall	Joey	Will & Grace	The Apprentice		ER
	Winter	Will & Grace	Four Kings	My Name Is Earl	The Office
	Spring		My Name Is Earl
Comedy Night Done Right
2006–2007	Fall	My Name Is Earl	The Office	Deal or No Deal		ER
	Winter[7]			Scrubs	30 Rock
	Spring[8]			Scrubs and 30 Rock	Andy Barker, P.I. and Scrubs
2007–2008	Fall[9]	My Name Is Earl	30 Rock	The Office	Scrubs	ER
	Winter1[10]	My Name Is Earl and The Office repeats or Deal or No Deal		Celebrity Apprentice		Lipstick Jungle
	Spring[11]	My Name Is Earl	30 Rock and Scrubs	The Office	Scrubs and 30 Rock	ER
2008–2009	Fall	My Name Is Earl	Kath & Kim	The Office	SNL Weekend Update Thursday and 30 Rock	ER
	Winter				30 Rock
	Spring		Parks and Recreation			Southland
2009–2010	Fall	SNL Weekend Update Thursday and Community	Parks and Recreation	The Office	Community and 30 Rock	The Jay Leno Show
	Winter	Community			30 Rock
	Spring					The Marriage Ref
2010–2011	Fall	Community	30 Rock	The Office	Outsourced	The Apprentice
	Winter		Perfect Couples		Parks and Recreation	30 Rock	Outsourced
	Spring		The Paul Reiser Show
			The Office (R)
2011–2012	Fall	Community	Parks and Recreation	The Office	Whitney	Prime Suspect

^1 Because of the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, shows that would regularly air were replaced with repeats and unscripted television.

References

1. ^ Schneider, Michael (May 13, 2006). "Peacock pulls back on 'Must See' revival". Variety. http://www.variety.com/ac2006_article/VR1117945200?nav=ecomedy. 
2. ^ Lamonica, Paul (October 16, 2006). "NBC's Heroic Return". CNN/Money. http://money.cnn.com/2006/10/16/news/companies/tv/index.htm. 
3. ^ http://www.poobala.com/blackout.html
4. ^ Crawford, Krysten (May 18, 2005). "Thursday TV: prized and in play". CNN/Money. http://money.cnn.com/2005/05/18/news/fortune500/tv_thursday/index.htm. 
5. ^ Gilbert, Matthew (January 28, 2007). "For sitcoms today, quality trumps quantity". The Boston Globe. http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2007/01/28/for_sitcoms_today_quality_trumps_quantity/. 
6. ^ "Die Season ist vorbei: Amerikas heißeste Liste". quotenmeter.de. 2010-07-05. http://www.quotenmeter.de/cms/?p1=n&p2=43034&p3=. Retrieved 2010-09-02. 
7. ^ "'Scrubs' Returns as NBC Remakes Thursdays". Zap2It. 2006-10-25. http://www.zap2it.com/tv/news/zap-nbcthursdaylineupscrubsreturns,0,5301098.story?coll=zap-tv-mainheadline. 
8. ^ Andreeva, Nellie (2007-03-13). "NBC switches "30 Rock," "Scrubs"". Yahoo!. http://tv.yahoo.com/news/article/urn:newsml:tv.reuters.com:20070313:nbc_dc__ER:1. 
9. ^ "NBC Orders Extra 'Office,' 'Earl'". Zap2It.com. 2007-05-14. http://www.zap2it.com/tv/news/zap-nbcbonusofficeearl,0,3690939.story?coll=zap-news-headlines. 
10. ^ "NBC Slots 'Medium,' Firms Up Schedule". Zap2It.com. 2007-12-07. http://www.zap2it.com/tv/news/zap-nbcschedule-mediumpremieredate,0,2251811.story. 
11. ^ "'30 Rock,' 'Scrubs' Swap Timeslots". Zap2It.com. 2008–5-22. http://www.zap2it.com/tv/news/zap-scrubs30rockswitchtimeslots,0,1881559.story. 

External links

• NBC.com
• Timeslot Source
• “MUST SEE TV”: THE RISE AND FALL OF NBC’S THURSDAY NIGHT SCHEDULE
• "Must See TV" creator exits