Disclaimer, I admit I am not the most knowledgeable person when it comes to television stats, but this question has been bothering me a lot recently!

So I have noticed something, television channels are worried more about competition with one another then actually succeeding to draw in viewers. For the most part, this became apparent as soon as this season begun. What am I referring too?

Monday's are hectic and insane, House, Hawaii Five O,  Two and half Men, Terra Nova, PlayBoy Club (Deceased), Gossip Girl and Dancing with the stars. Among other programs from other channels all aired on Monday some at the same time as one another. I mean pitting Terra Nova directly against Two and Half Men was foolish. T&HM is a Juggernaut and would obviously draw viewers away from Terra Nova. Gossip Girl against Play Boy Club , what was the television network behind Play Boy Club thinking?

Now that I've talked Monday I realized that other then Mondays the rest of the week is sparsely populated. A few new shows on Tuesday's , Wed a few others, Thursday seems to be comedy night with CBS, Friday has Nikita. Saturday's have virtually nothing. Is this only because I am in Canada or is the situation identacle in the US? Sunday sees Animation Domination dominate the air waves and for some reason the new series called Pan Am takes it on directly.

So I understand why most shows avoid airing Friday evenings because teens and young adults are rarely at home watching tv. But what about other days why do television networks target each other directly.

Example Play Boy Club got 5-million views at its premier. It brought in around 4 consistently till its cancellation. But it was pitted against series with far more seniority and installed viewership, wouldn't it have been smarter after receiving such poor numbers to change the date or air time so that it was no longer in direct competition with a more successful show? In fact why did the network put Play Boy Club in such a competitive position day one anyways?

Terra Nova for example has so much potential and could bring in way more American viewers if it wasn't competing against the biggest comedy on American television (Two and Half Men). In Canada Terra Nova was originally supposed to air on a Thursday before Big Bang Theory and How I Met your Mother. I think that time slot would have been more beneficial to the shows success.

I'm not the most knowledgeable person when it comes to television numbers. I recently realized I look at global numbers most often to see if a show is successful, but Seece pointed out American companies only care about American ratings the Canadian viewpoint is different. So can someone explain why the shows always compete directly with one another rather then finding a slot where they have the viewers all to themselves?

I look at it from a business point of view I would put my product in a market where I have the best chance of being successful rather then trying to compete with everyone else. Say more people view TV Monday nights which I assume must be fact, if everyone goes for the big pie they divide it up so small amongst one another that it is no longer worth it. While there is a smaller market on another day you get a much larger piece of pie.

So why do you think all the networks are competing with one another in direct clashes rather then placing their bigger shows in time slots where they don't directly harm one another?

It is based on the economics of network television ... With how much overhead there is to run their network of affiliates they need a massive audience, and they can't simply "lose" any of that audience to another network (or cable channel)

Most shows on TV are garbage so networks just throw shit up against the wall in hopes of it sticking.

I understand that, however if your going to loose those viewers regardless why not pick your battles and air your big program at a time a competitor doesn't have a huge program airing? Thus stealing viewers away from your competitor? No channel is going to be able to maintain the large amount of viewers at all times.

What I'm saying is Monday's have all these huge shows which could all pull in millions of more viewers likely if they aired at different times. Wouldn't in be more advantageous to the television network to increase viewers on different dates then fighting for a smaller amount of viewers on Monday (For example)?

I mean everyone knew T&HM was going to clean house when it aired, why pit Terra Nova directly against it when you know very well you are going to loose a huge amount of viewers?

Well, since this thread has died, I don't think it would be wrong to post something off topic.

The reason this thread has died is because of your enormous post. Being smart isn't just about conveying a lot of information. It's also about doing so in an efficient manner.

Nobody wants to get on the internet to read essays.

Just picking out a few points of your post. Gossip Girl and The Playboy Club did not air at the same time. Gossip Girl airs at 8 I believe and the The Playboy Club was on at 10. The CW only programs from 8-10, instead of 8-11 like ABC,NBC, and CBS. Also, I don't think the four big networks are paying much attention to what the CW airs at anytime, the CW's ratings are no better than many cable networks. Also Fox only broadcasts until 10 as well, which means Animation Domination ends at 10 and Pan Am starts at 10 so they are not competing. Also Animation Domination only performs very well when it airs after football, most of the time its ratings are only slightly above average (with Family Guy really being the only hit).

The reasons Mondays are so competitive I believe is because it is the start of the week. All of the networks want to have a big show on Monday so that they can promote the rest of their shows that will air during the week. So it is an important night for the broadcast channels. I also don't think anyone expected Two and Half Men to be as big at is after the premier. It has not dropped off as sharply as expected, but it is still decreasing each week, and after another month or so it is possible it will no longer be a massive hit.

For Terra Nova specifically Fox is very competitive on Sundays-Thursdays. X-Factor takes up most of Wednesdays and Thursdays. Tuesday is the day for Glee and their two comedies. Sunday is animation. They weren't going to air Terra Nova on Friday, so that only left them with Mondays.

Well you also have to remember, that if people really want to watch there shows there are catch up methods. I can't really directly relate to how you all feel in the US, but in the UK there has been a large fuss about how Spooks and Downton Abbey have been put at the same time, Sunday at 9PM and everyone has been moaning

The thing is, we have the iPlayer and ITV Player, allowing both shows to be seen on demand, even without any sort of TV recording equipment, so the actual scheduling of shows matters less than it used to, personally, I don't really watch any TV shows live, as I prefer to watch 2-3 eps at a time for most good series, or just to simply skip through adverts

the real question is why do that many people watch 2 and a half men. did'nt like the show when charlie sheen was on and don't like it now. Just don't get it,almost makes me sad for American television.

Because they like it... I find it quite amusing actually, and something to have on in the background whilst doing other things

If you watch a lot of TV your going to find overlapping shows. It's not just about competition it's about the limited amount of prime time hours of which to air the shows. ABC and NBC don't want to lose viewers to each others shows so they put their best shows against them in hopes that you won't change the channel.

Just set up multiple recording devices and you'll be fine. But I do suggest that you reduce the amount of TV you watch. I used to watch hours of TV every night and it got so bad I couldn't do anything because I was afraid I'd get behind on my favorite shows. Now I just watch 1 or 2 shows and some days I don't watch anything. It gives me a lot more time to do productive things and I don't end up staying up too late to get in some video games.

TV is a great form of entertainment, but it can become prison sentence if you get hooked on too many shows.