As a TV sequel to a major movie, CBS' Training Day was an ambitious project from the very beginning. The series got off to an intense and action-packed start that was a solid followup to the 2001 film, but it hasn't exactly been a smash success in its first season. Now, Training Day has officially gotten some bad news. CBS is moving the series from its Thursday night time slot to a Saturday night time slot.
The first six episodes of Training Day aired on Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET. The new time slot will place the rest of the first season on Saturdays at 9 p.m. ET. The Thursday night time slot will be filled by The Amazing Race moving forward, according to Deadline. Of course, a time slot change isn't the worst thing that could possibly happen to a TV show, but a move from Thursday night to Saturday doesn't bode well for Training Day. Saturdays generally don't attract nearly as sizable audiences to network TV as Sunday - Thursday, and it's not very likely that Training Day will do any better in ratings or viewership on Saturdays than it did on Thursdays.
Given that the ratings so far have averaged out to 4.16 million viewers and a disappointing 0.75 in the valuable 18-49 demographic, fans might want to start crossing their fingers that something happens for CBS to want to invest in a Season 2. Between the low ratings and the tragic passing of star Bill Paxton, there's a good chance that Training Day doesn't have much of a future beyond Season 1.
That said, the end isn't definitively nigh for Training Day. For one thing, competition on Saturday nights isn't nearly as stiff as on weekday nights, so low ratings might not matter as much. For another thing, the entire first season has already been filmed, and Bill Paxton actually completed his work on the season before he passed away. Unless CBS yanks Training Day from the lineup before all 13 episodes of Season 1 have aired, viewers will have gotten to see a full season of what the Training Day team can produce. If ratings are consistent - even if not especially high - and the storytelling is solid, the network could feel confident enough in the series to give it another shot. We can only wait, watch, and hope at this point.
Training Day is actually on a break for the next couple of weeks due to March Madness basketball coverage. It will make its new time slot debut on Saturday, April 8 at 9 p.m. ET. For a look at everything else you can catch on the small screen currently and in the not-too-distant future, be sure to check out our midseason TV premiere schedule and our summer TV premiere schedule.
