NBC released their fall schedule and made a few changes. One such change is an hour-long comedy block on Friday night starting in November where a new comedy by George Lopez will be paired with season three of Young Rock, the autobiographical show by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson about him growing up in a pro wrestling family.
TV shows get moved all the time for a variety of reasons but there is one potentially major problem with NBC’s programming decision. By going to Friday night, it means that Young Rock is going to go head-to-head with WWE SmackDown on Fox.
Ratings for Young Rock have been trending downward since the beginning of the series. There is always a drop-off after the series premiere but the show has gone from 5.3 million viewers at the first episode to 1.88 million last Tuesday.
Ignoring SmackDown for a minute, it makes sense for NBC to move Young Rock to Friday night. Friday is typically a night where many people are out of the house but as it was noted in an article from Deadline, NBC is going for a TGIF type of family friendly sitcom block. That’s all well and good, and if the show didn’t fit anywhere else it’s better than being outright canceled, but it just seems like NBC will be cannibalizing their Young Rock audience if many of their viewers are pro wrestling fans and they decide to watch SmackDown instead.
[Deadline/Photo: NBC YouTube]
About Phillip Bupp
Producer/editor of the Awful Announcing Podcast and Short and to the Point. News editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. Highlight consultant for Major League Soccer as well as a freelance writer for hire. Opinions are my own but feel free to agree with them.
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