It looks like CBS is going to give Flashpoint a fighting chance. The network has decided to move the series to Thursday nights. Flashpoint, which centers on a team of policemen (and woman) that specialize in sensitive criminal matters like hostage situations, will take over Swingtown’s spot on Thursday nights at 10 p.m.. And Swingtown will move to Friday nights at 10, taking up residence in Flashpoints vacated timeslot.
Having seen both shows, this news pleases me. Swingtown, which takes place in the 70’s and follows various couples as they dabble in the wild world of suburban spouse-swapping, has plenty of drama with a few drops of humor but overall, I found the series kind of boring. Sure, Grant Show is as hot as ever (even with the porn-stache), but the show just doesn’t have anything that interests me.
Flashpoint, on the other hand, has a lot more potential to reach a wider audience. From the episodes that have aired so far, there’s been a reasonable level of intensity and the pacing with regards to the characters is moving fast enough to make them interesting but not so fast that we’re getting too much information unloaded on us all at once. Plus it has Enrico Colantoni (Veronica Mars, Just Shoot Me!) and Amy Jo Johnson (aka The Pink Ranger). CBS reported that Flashpoint’s Friday night broadcasts are averaging about 7.62 million viewers. That’s not bad for a new series that got stuffed into a relatively slow timeslot. Meanwhile, Swingtown has been airing on Thursday nights and is averaging 6.52 million viewers.
While I think Flashpoint’s move to Thursdays can only help the series build the audience it deserves, I don’t think moving to Friday nights will help Swingtown. Then again, perhaps the series will thrive off the Numb3ers lead-in that helped get Flashpoint’s audience going.
