Grosse Pointe Garden Society arrived in the 2025 TV schedule as a new NBC show that really defies categorization into just one genre. For me as somebody who regularly watches medical and crime procedurals, that was part of the appeal from the start, but the network's latest move makes me wonder if perhaps that element has done more harm than good in attracting a wider audience. NBC is moving the freshman drama/dark comedy/murder mystery away from a Sunday night time slot, and it's not going to a better one.
In the wake of Grosse Pointe Garden Society's last episode that will follow Suits: LA on Sunday nights, I can't help but think back on what has made this my favorite new network show of the year so far and why NBC's move probably doesn't bode well for it.
Grosse Pointe Garden Society Is Moving To A Dreaded Friday Night Slot
First things first! Grosse Pointe Garden Society was originally scheduled for NBC's 10 p.m. ET slot on Sunday nights, as the third hour of an unconventional primetime block. Unlike what the network has going with the cohesive One Chicago block on Wednesdays and the Law & Order pairing on Thursdays, the new Sunday lineup opened on a docuseries with The Americas, continued with legal drama Suits LA, and then finally concluded on GPGS.
After three episodes, Deadline reported that the show was not doing well in linear ratings, with numbers at the bottom of NBC's offerings in total audience and adults in the key 18-49 age demographic. That reportedly translates to just over a million viewers for the second and third episodes in Live+Same day totals.
Starting on April 4, GPGS will air new episodes on Friday nights at 8 p.m. ET, marking a move in time slot as well as air date. It will now lead into Dateline. While I take it as a good sign that NBC didn't cut the show from its schedule altogether, Friday nights are often considered where network TV shows go to die. NBC has found success with sitcoms on Fridays, but nothing like Grosse Pointe Garden Society.
Is Cancellation Nigh?
It's hard to be optimistic about a new show when it's moved from pretty much any day of the week to Friday nights, and CBS is the only network that has really cemented mainstays on that night with shows like the renewed Fire Country, although the Blue Bloods cancellation initially hurt. Plus, the serialization that I love about Grosse Pointe Garden Society might not lend well to any time slot change. No matter how detailed the recap segment is at the beginning of an episode, this isn't really a show to jump into blind.
On the flip side, though, it's possible that NBC's expectations when it comes to ratings won't be as high for a Friday night show as for a Sunday night offering. I'm pretty confident that the numbers won't rise with the big change in nights, but perhaps any dip won't be as discouraging as it would have been when paired with Suits LA. So, while the future isn't necessarily guaranteed for GPGS, there may be a silver lining to the move... if you squint, anyway.
Were Sunday Nights Not Working?
Given that the last Sunday night episode of Grosse Pointe Garden Society aired just days after NBC gave a big push to Suits LA outside, I have to wonder if Sunday nights haven't been working on the whole. After all, the unconventional lineup that may have been bad for GPGS likely didn't benefit the Suits spinoff either.
Instead of airing Law & Order, SVU, and Found as usual on Thursday, March 27, NBC gave the full night of primetime to reruns of Suits LA's third, fourth, and fifth episodes. Notably, those selections skip over the series premiere that was panned by fans of the original Suits. Is the big push for Stephen Amell's a sign that it hasn't been delivering ideal ratings on Sundays or doing much better than GPGS?
How Well Is Season 1 Performing On Peacock?
All of this said, there is good news about Grosse Pointe Garden Society in the 2024-2025 TV schedule. The show, which reportedly was originally considered to release as a streaming original in the first place, gets a boost when accounting for views from watchers with a Peacock subscription. Per the same Deadline numbers that were unfortunate for Live+Same day totals, the audience for the pilot more than tripled to 6.6 million viewers and the ratings increased sevenfold to 1.21 when delayed views count be accounted for.
Winning and maintaining an audience on Peacock could hypothetically be enough to save the series, and I personally wouldn't mind if Grosse Pointe Garden Society was handled like Law & Order: Organized Crime back in 2024. The Christopher Meloni-led drama was moved from NBC to become a streaming original, and I could see the same as a positive change for GPGS.
Why Should Grosse Pointe Garden Society Be Saved?
For all of this talk of whether Grosse Pointe Garden Society can have a future despite the move to Friday nights, I should really address why it has become my favorite new network TV show of 2025 so far. I watch a lot of TV for my job as an entertainment journalist, and crime/medical procedurals can be my bread and butter. I veered out of my usual lane for GPGS, and the combination of drama and comedy while a gaggle of suburbanites try to cover up a murder has been a lot of fun over the six episodes that have released so far.
I wasn't surprised to see how well the cast gelled after executive producer Casey Kyber raved that they "hit the jackpot" with the ensemble, and Melissa Fumero got some high praise from a co-star with a comparison to Reese Witherspoon's beloved performance in Legally Blonde. Episodes still often leave me with more questions than answers, but I haven't found myself frustrated. We don't even know with 100% certainty who the murder victim was, and I'm okay with that.
Watching Grosse Pointe Garden Society feels like a marathon that will be worth the journey by the end, and definitely not a procedural or a sitcom spring. I'm not sure how a Season 2 could continue the story, assuming that the mystery is solved by the end of the first season, but my fingers are crossed that NBC and/or Peacock give the show the chance. For now, check out the promo for the first episode scheduled for the new time slot:
From now on, tune in to NBC on Fridays at 8 p.m. ET if you want to watch Grosse Pointe Garden Society live. Alternately, you can keep up with the dark dramedy streaming via Peacock. Interestingly, just like how GPGS will now lead into Dateline on Fridays, NBC has scheduled Dateline to follow Suits LA on Sundays. Who knows? Maybe Dateline will be the real standout hit of early 2025.
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