• by Wayne Friedman , March 13, 2013

What does one do with an expensive, struggling broadcast network scripted series about prospective Broadway show -- and getting just under 3 million viewers? How about moving it to the unusual Saturday night time period?

That's what NBC is doing with "Smash" which had been airing on Tuesdays at 10 p.m. and now will be seen on Saturday at 9 p.m., starting April 6. No worries "Smash" fans -- all 17 episodes will air.

Initially, the two year old show got a big 3.5 rating among 18-49 viewers on its premiere a year ago following "The Voice" a year ago. But now those 18-49 ratings are at a somewhat microscopic 0.9 rating/3 share level.  It started the season at a not-much-better 1.1 rating/3 share and moved as low as a 0.8 number before gaining a bit.

But all this isn't enough. On March 12, it remained at a 0.9/3 for 18-49ers and 2.9 million viewers overall. This was a distant third place to CBS's "Golden Boy", which registered a 1.5/5 and 8.5 million viewers.

TV networks have experimented in running original programming on Saturday night recently -- including sports and animated programming. Saturday night remains one of the lowest traditional TV viewing nights of the week.
xxx