CBS is moving "Harper's Island" to 9 p.m. Saturday this week, which is essentially gutting it the way the characters on the show are murdered, I'm a little surprised. Ratings haven't been great but they haven't been as bad as some other prime-time series.
As part of the change, "CSI: NY" season finale will air at 10 p.m. May 14 in the "Harper's" spot.
CBS's release:
"HARPER'S ISLAND" MOVES TO SATURDAY, 9:00 PM, BEGINNING MAY 2
7-Day DVR Results Show Significant Audience Increases Among
Young Adult Viewers
Online Streaming Also Shows Strong Viewer Engagement
HARPER'S ISLAND, the Network's 13-week mystery event, will move to Saturday effective May 2 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) forming a two-hour block of original programming with 48 HOURS MYSTERY (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT).
The move to Saturday comes on the heels of the first extended DVR playback data for the HARPER'S ISLAND premiere on April 9, as well as strong online viewer engagement.
"The preliminary DVR and online streaming data suggest a passionate audience for HARPER'S outside its current Thursday time period borders," said Kelly Kahl, Senior Executive Vice President Prime Time, CBS Television. "This move gives us an opportunity to improve the time period on Thursday while experimenting with more original programming on Saturday, and continuing to serve an audience that is clearly engaged in the ongoing HARPER'S ISLAND story."
According to Nielsen live plus 7-day playback results versus live, the HARPER'S ISLAND premiere audience increased by +29% in adults 18-49 (3.1 from 2.4), +33% in adults 18-34 (2.0 from 1.5), +25% in adults 25-54 (4.0 from 3.2) and gained +1.64 million viewers (11.29m from 9.65m).
The premiere of HARPER'S ISLAND was also CBS.com's biggest online premiere ever, delivering more video streams (combined clips and episodes) than any previous show launch for the CBS Audience Network, and continues to be the fastest growing series in CBS.com's history.
Posted
Apr 27 2009, 05:27 PM
by
Rob Owen