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Back by popular demand, ShowBuzzDaily’s PROMO WATCH will track broadcast network on-air priorities (as we did this summer with the new fall show series promotion). We kick off with promo activity in a sampling of Sunday’s broadcast programming. Basically, we will look at the promos within one hour of primetime per network per night (mostly high-rated shows, with a cross-section of genres represented).The first thing to notice is how ABC, NBC and FOX are able to prioritize. CBS is back to its habit of giving everything a little bit of time, raising the question: does any program get enough promotion time to make a difference? For example, the top priorities on ABC got 45-50 seconds last night, NBC’s got 40, FOX’s got 90 (although they had more time to give in programming that replaced a rained out baseball playoff game). CBS’s top priority got all of 20 seconds, with most shows getting 10.
ABC is pushing, not surprisingly, the Tuesday premiere of Last Man Standing. FOX heavily pushed the return of Bones — it had a lot of promo time available in a commercial-light repeat of The X Factor, which replaced MLB ALCS Game 2 at the last minute. NBC put most of its chips in Sunday Night Football behind…Grimm. A big allocation to a Friday series — we’ll see how that works out. CBS, as we said, promoted everything and nothing all at once.
A word of caution: this is the first night’s sample. We will aggregate these numbers on a daily basis as we move through the week.
ON-AIR PROMOTION PRIORITIES (# of promo-seconds)
Date sampled: Sunday, October 9, 2011
ABC
Last Man Standing 50
Dancing…Stars 45
Wed Comedy Lineup 45
Once Upon a Time 30
Revenge 30
Pan Am 30
CBS
Unforgettable 20
The Talk 20
CSI Miami 20
Person of Interest 20
NCIS 15
NCIS: LA 15
Two Half Men 15
Mike & Molly 15
CSI 15
Criminal Minds 10
Survivor 10
NBC
Grimm 40
Prime Suspect 25
Up All Night 15
Parenthood 15
Whitney 15
FOX
Bones 90
Terra Nova 60
House 60
Family Guy 30
Allen Gregory 30
The X Factor 30
MLB ALCS 20
Fringe 15
Programs Sampled
Sun Oct 9 2011: Desperate Housewives, The Good Wife, 8:30-9:30 portion of Sunday Night Football, 8:00-8:30 and 9:00-9:30 portions of The X Factor repeat (which replaced rained out MLB ALCS Game 2)
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