The Post-Super Bowl Time Slot Isn’t All It’s Cracked Up to Be read full article at worldnews365.me

While that all makes sense in theory, there’s a secret about the post-Super Bowl time slot that the networks don’t want you to know: it’s far from a guarantee of success. Whether its poor curation of content or the curse of outsized expectations from inflated pilot numbers, TV shows that premiere right after the Super Bowl don’t often go on to receive a second season. Don’t believe us? Check out the handy chart below.

By our count, 18 new TV shows have premiered their first episode after a Super Bowl and of those 18, only nine (or 50%) reached anything resembling long-term success. In this case, we’re interpretting “success” as merely a second season. Even that is a pretty liberal definition though. If we exclude shows that did receive second seasons but didn’t make any kind of longterm cultural impact (Airwolf, Davis Rules, The Equalizer) then the post-Super Bowl time slot’s success rate goes down to 33%.

Per some studies (albeit dated ones), this number is consistent with the 20-35% rate that the average network series faces even without boost of a super-sized audience for its first episode. Why then, do networks continually perceive the post-Super Bowl slot as a good spot to debut new shows? The answer to that question is that, increasingly, they don’t.

In the 21st century, networks have used the Super Bowl to premiere a fresh show only five times, most recently with 2021’s The Equalizer. Instead, many networks of late have opted to air “special” episodes of their existing programming to both reward current fans and try to appeal to new ones. Due to all the statistical noise surrounding viewership numbers in the cable and streaming age, it’s hard to pinpoint whether this leads to a noticeable increase in ratings. What is clear, however, is that it does lead to some great episodes of television. Just glance at the impressive list below.

That’s a pretty impressive batch of TV episodes right there, including a Grey’s Anatomy classic and an Office installment that featured one of the best cold opens over.