Nick at Nite Replaces Fresh Prince in Primetime with Family Matters; 10 Things...Premiere Solid for ABC Family

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Nick at Nite Replaces Fresh Prince in Primetime with Family Matters; 10 Things...Premiere Solid for ABC Family

Nick at Nite made a very last minute change late yesterday. They have replaced The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in the Mon-Thurs 10pm hour with Family Matters effective yesterday (July 13). If you all recall, Family Matters was in the original schedule to air in the 10pm hour, but Nick at Nite changed their mind. Family Matters will still air Sundays at 10pm as well, so the 10pm hour is Sun-Thurs for Steve Urkel and the gang. Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is now only Mon-Thurs in the 4am hour. Nick at Nite has not updated their schedule for next week (week of July 20) and beyond, so it is still showing Fresh next week in the 10pm hour. It is unclear what will air Fridays at 11pm since Fresh Prince of Bel-Air airs there and this week the Friday schedule is preempted. I would guess Family Matters will get to replace that hour as well.
This weekend Nickelodeon & Nick at Nite celebrate the SpongeBob 10th anniversary with a 50-hour marathon starting Friday at 8pm through Sunday at 10pm, preempting Nick at Nite on Friday, Saturday and for two hours on Sunday. Due to this marathon, George Lopez will air in the 1am hour this Sunday since it is preempted in the 9pm hour.
Stay tuned for the latest on this change and to see what will happen beyond this week. Looks like Fresh Prince did bad last week when it started airing at 10pm? Looks like Malcolm in the Middle did decent for premiere week? We shall see soon if anything changes. View the Nick at Nite July 2009 schedule thread to keep up with the up-to-the-minute details.

Last week's premiere of ABC Family's original comedy series 10 Things I Hate About You did solid in the ratings. ABC Family's newest original series launched as the net's No. 1 comedy series debut on record in Total Viewers (1.6 million), Adults 18-34 (509,000), Women 18-34 (396,000), Adults 18-49 (734,000) and Women 18-49 (574,000). The series stood as cable's No. 1 program in the time slot in Women 18-34 (396,000/1.2 rating), Women 18-49 (574,000/0.9 rating tied on rating), Viewers 12-34 (936,000/1.0 rating) and Females 12-34 (762,000/1.7 rating), and TV's No. 1 program in prime overall in Females Teens (367,000/3.0 rating) for Tuesday.
The comedy out-delivered the ratings for the now canceled comedies Sophie and Roommates. Roommates launched to 1.5 million viewers but that was out of the season finale of Secret Life of the American Teenager which did 4.49 million that night. 10 Things I Hate About led off the night in primetime and did 1.6 million on its own, making this more impressive.
10 Things I Hate About airs its second episode tonight and needs to do similar to the premiere's ratings. Because by episode two Roommates was down to just 440,000 viewers, and this show doesn't want to drop that much. Sophie was dead on arrival.
A second original sitcom Ruby & the Rockits will launch next Tuesday at 8:30pm following 10 Things I Hate About. Watch the second episode of 10 Things I Hate About tonight at 8PM ET/PT on ABC Family!