By all means, ramble away.

Tristin addressed that idea

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Oh, please do, Dash. You're pretty much the only who can explain.

Just one thing though. Maybe what I have to say is doesn't add up to this equation but how was actually the fourth season of the original show received? Of course there was no social media at the time and it all was the way they said it would be and that was that.

Just curious because the fourth season of the original also began much later on Halloween with The Secret of Parker House while they could've aired at least 3 to 4 maybe even 5 episodes before that. It was also the shortest season at that time with 19 episodes. Was there a specific reason for that and how did the fans react?

I don't have much time and I've posted this chart already a while ago (don't rememember where, though ).

But this is why Friday is considered the “Death Slot”: Networks get a lot less money for a 30-second TV-commercial than on other days.

Check the chart (via AdAge) to see how much CBS got for their commercial minutes for each show in this Fall Season. And see for yourself which shows are worth the most and which aren’t...

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Season 4's Nielsen ratings gave it mostly second place for it's time-slot with an occasional 3rd place.

It's actual ratings ranged from 11.5 - 14.0 with a demo % of 18 - 24


Nielsen ratings was the main system used back then.

Any idea why the drop for Mac this season vs. last?

I'm no expert in this and never really checked the Topic, but I'm assuming the Prices are a mixture of the average Network daily rates (e.g. Tuesdays to Thursdays on CBS are apparently more expensive than Fridays or Saturdays) and the individual average show demo ratings.

Friday used to be considered the "death slot", that's probably why advertizing is cheaper on Fridays. Yet, because of the better Ratings, both H50 and "Blue Bloods" have higher rates in general.

MacGyver lost in Viewers and demo Ratings over time and also between Seasons 1 and 2. The Chart came out in October, so I guess they looked at the drop during Season 1, and maybe waited until a few episodes of Season 2 aired, then predicted how the Show will do during the season and what commercial minutes should be worth charging.

If you check the chart, almost every show lost in worth since the last Season because of the dropping Ratings over time. "Bull" is a good example. It was the CBS Darling of all the rookie shows and got a lot of promo; they really pushed for it to be successful. And it did well in Ratings. This Season, they shoved the Show from 9 to 10pm in favor of "Magnum PI". They lost about 40% in Ratings (both in Demo AND in audience numbers). The people buying commercial minutes for this show certainly didn't get their money's worth. It still does great in DVR but that's probably not very interesting for CBS since people will skip most of the commercials when not watching live. So it's safe to assume that advertizing during "Bull" will be a lot cheaper for this Season.

If you think about it, Magnum kinda "killed" both Bull and MacGyver

Audience Number comparison between MacGyver and SEAL Team (via SpoilerTV).

I'm not sure why they got a full Fall Season renewal... don't think the cost for SEAL Team is worth it with those ratings; especially considered they already exchanged the showrunner for S2 and had to do some retooling... they do very well in DVR numbers, though. Yet that's not where you make the big bucks...

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Maybe because that's the show that states they hire veterans

Maybe. But after all, CBS is a business, and not a "social service". I'm not sure if they think that far ahead to be nice to veterans or to use this as a way to get a better image.

If MacGyver gets a syndication deal, the show could go on for a while – even if airing midseason. But it still angers me a bit that they use it as a „filler“ show for mideason while other shows get the full treatment and good promo, despite average ratings. Hiring veterans or not, and despite having better demo and DVR ratings than MacGyver, both SEAL Team and SWAT (and even Magnum PI) only have average ratings.

Absolutely right. MacGyver got little to NO promo from CBS or from Lenkov for that matter I don't care what he says to protest fans' reactions. Magnum ratings are inflated because of the football championship game and for a heavily promoted first year show did not have good ratings imo. But Lenkov signed a deal with CBS so who really knows the terms. I believe MacGyver was sacrificed for Magnum and it infuriates me. I won't watch it or H50 but I'm not a Nielson family so basically I don't matter. At least I can vent here

well, look at that. they will run Magnum reruns on Fridays, 9pm. so they can air H50 reruns at 8pm. they're already testing the new schedule, starting August 9.

meanwhile, NO MacGyver reruns scheduled because the 8pm slot is currently occupied by "Whistleblower".

gosh, I hate CBS... I keep thinking it can't get worse and it does

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Not surprised. No repeats last year when MacGyver was on the fall schedule. It never got/gets respect or support..

Does anyone know why CBS isn't showing MacGyver any respect?

I mean, I don't think the original was very well respected by CBS either.

You're right the original was treated in much the same way.

It got moved around int eh schedule a few times.

RDA even complained about it in interviews like this one

Is this the reason why the OG folded the first time? Low ratings and/or lack of support...?

I saw the last episode and I always felt more could have been done with the show....

for people speculating when Season 4 could air... that's really hard to predict at the moment.

it will probably end up in a time slot of a rookie show that didn't make it beyond 13 episodes or in the timeslot of a show with a short episode order... so could be Mondays 9pm, Thursdays 10pm or even Sundays 10pm... which doesn't look good.

I doubt it will end up on Fridays, though. If they want to save Magnum, they will probably air reruns after its season finale... and during Summer, the 8pm timeslot will be occupied by other shows like "Whistleblower", "Uncercover Celebrity Boss" and the like.

I'm already curious if H50 will get reruns at 9pm instead of if they just drop them as well...


CBS table via http://data.worldscreen.com/season_grid/index.html

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According to H50 fan Belle, both H50 and Magnum Stand-Ins / Doubles have been filming scenes together today in Hawaii: https://twitter.com/hawaii_isla808/status/1...612579636543489

So it looks like they are already filming a crossover between both shows. Two weeks ago, H50 was filming scenes in LA; particularly scenes of a "Day of the Dead" set (with LA probably standing in for Mexico).

It's possible they do a big 2-parter crossover episode for the Season premiere this Fall. Looks like CBS and NBC REALLY really want Magnum PI to succeed in the new timeslot... I'm curious if they had nabbed the opportunity to finally do that crossover now that the shows air back-to-back or if they had planned it all along; making the decision easier to "sacrifice" MacGyver to make room for Magnum on Fridays...

NBC???

If you look at the CBS table posted two posts back (on May 30), you can see that both H50 and MacGyver are produced "inhouse" by CBS, but distributed by CBSSI (CBS Studios International).

Magnum PI on the other hand is distributed by NBCU (NBC Universal International Distribution). So NBC is the co-production and distribution network for this shows and has (presumably a rather large sum of) money in the pot.

That's why they have a say in the show. I'm assuming they also kind of paid a lot of money into it because if they hadn't, CBS would probably have already dropped it with those ratings... That's probably also why they got a commercial spot at the superbowl.

While CBS does also push their own in-house-produced shows, they don't usually go that large. At least not for potential Friday shows. And not for shows with that kind of rating. Also, they usually favor only one of the in-house shows every year that gets some extra push because they want that show to succeed and to stay on screen for several seasons. In 2016, it was "Bull". In 2017, it was "SEAL Team", in 2018 "FBI". The extra push for Magnum must have been supported by NBC.

But that's just my opinion. I could be wrong, of course, since I'm not really an expert but trying to be one

According to Wolf Entertainment, they already know that "FBI: Most Wanted" will have a Winter Premiere date: https://www.instagram.com/p/B1eibpWHA4D/

So I guess they might get the timeslot on Sunday 10pm after Madame Secretary ended the series with the last 10 episodes. So if none of the two rookie crime show fails, there's no open timeslot for MacGyver to take over in January

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This is not sounding good.

Well, schedules can always change, of course. But at the moment, there's only one guaranteed free slot in January (Sundays 10pm), and we don't really want that one anyway .

I could see it on Mondays 9pm - IF rookie show "All Rise" is done and canned after 13 episodes. Otherwise, I'm not sure where they can put it if they really want to air it in January.

But I just realized "Survivor" on Wednesdays 8pm isn't a full season, either. They have about 15 or 16 episodes per season, so that would give us another potential timeslot; maybe starting February. That would be the only 8pm timeslot for midseason, actually - but in recent years, it was occupied by "The Amazing Race".

Of all the midseason crime shows, MacGyver is the only one that should really have an 8pm slot. Both "Criminal Minds", "Tommy" or the FBI Spinoff could do well on a later slot as well, so I hope they reserve any free 8pm slot for the Reboot and not for one of the rookie shows.

I think some intern went a bit overboard. Episode 2x01 for Magnum has 23!!! Official Stills. Why don't they just do it as a photo story?

I am curious, why would Terry Matalas take over on Mac if he thought it was for only half a season? He has spoken about it a lot, and gets very defensive/protective of it on certain FB pages so I don't think he believes he's moving to a dead show. Chin up, folks.

For comparison: H50 got 7. Guess we know where their priorities are

I'm really curious how the ratings will do. Only a month and we'll see.

Oh, can you add the link to those conversations or embedd them there? I'm really curious, everyone seems mum about it.

Stunt Coordinator Daniel Hargrave recently did a podcast and hinted that the show might get some additional episodes ordered. But otherwise, it sounded like he is already heading to another project...

I can see them ordering 2 or 3 more episodes, but only if they get a January starting date...

It was a few weeks ago on a Twelve Monkeys FB page - but its a members only page so if I link it won't show.

Personally, if MacGyver were suddenly canceled or whatever, the worst part would be all the time and effort everyone put into making these episodes that no one could see

Television networks are very good at telling people what they need to hear in order for the network to get what they want from said people.

Another good question is why would Henry Ian Cusick join a show that has just been dropped to midseason?

I have a theory that both Matala and Cusick were signed on before the mid-season announcement was made making them think it was a full season winter show.