On Monday night this week, CBS premiered Supergirl, a flashy new superhero drama with spunk and spirit that the network is hoping will help put its Monday night schedule on the map. It performed well enough to generate many positive headlines, but the show's successful premiere also marked the start of a huge change over at the network. Starting next week, for the first time since 1949, CBS won’t offer any comedy on Monday nights.
Maybe it doesn’t seem like a big deal that CBS is shifting away from comedies on Mondays. However, similar to when NBC ditched its own Thursday night comedy lineup at the beginning of this season in favor of dramas, the lack of laughers shows a shift in viewer preferences from comedies to dramas, especially of the serialized variety. That’s a huge change in viewer preferences, as the number of comedies on TV is dwindling overall.
That doesn’t mean CBS is totally lacking in comedy. The Big Bang Theory is still crushing in the ratings every time it airs. Plus, Mom, The Odd Couple and Life in Pieces also do respectably on Thursday nights, and CBS has 2 Broke Girls and Mike & Molly returning to the schedule eventually. NBC has definitely had a tougher time getting comedies to stick than CBS. But losing an entire night of comedy is still a great illustration of how different things really are becoming.
So far, switching to a drama-filled lineup seems to be working. Supergirl’s first outing this past Monday absolutely crushed in the ratings. The early Nielsen numbers indicate that more than 12 million total viewers tuned in to catch the first episode of the brand new drama, and the 90-minute episode of Scorpion that followed did really well, too. Of course, this week’s Monday night lineup was still given a little bit of a boost as a new episode of The Big Bang Theory aired first at 8 p.m. ET. But moving forward, The Big Bang Theory is moving to Thursday nights, and Mondays will be anchored by Supergirl, Scorpion and NCIS: Los Angeles.
We’ll be able to see how CBS’ revamped Monday nights do in the coming weeks. Perhaps at midseason we'll see some comedies shuffle back to that day of the week too, since Mike & Molly hasn't been given a specific premiere date yet. Or perhaps Mondays will be for drama in the future. The only thing that's clear is that TV is changing, and as streaming services and video becomes more prominent, we don't expect these changes to slow down one bit. Good for CBS for recognizing what's coming and changing things up. Hopefully the network will be rewarded for being really proactive.
