Timeless Fridays: Behind our season 2 renewal movement
When thinking about the NBC series, which is undoubtedly a personal favorite at this point based on content and the sense of wonderful escapism it provides, the biggest thing that stands out, regrettably, are the ratings. They’re not strong enough to make us feel convinced that a season 2 renewal is coming. We’ll continue fighting, but in the end this is a decision the network has to make. They also still have many other shows still coming down the pipeline, whether it be a Chicago Justice or a Taken coming to Monday nights. They still have decisions to make.
Therefore, we started thinking a little over a month ago about what the idea of Timeless on Friday nights would look like. This is a show with a heavy science fiction / fantasy following, and it there’s a night familiar with this already, it’s Friday. Syfy in particular tends to run programming there of this nature, and for good reason. Fox has Sleepy Hollow on Fridays at the moment, and NBC Grimm for many years.
The first benefit to moving over to this spot is that your show can air there, and have a little bit less in terms of expectations. Networks know that DVR ratings are going to effectively be the key there just as much as live numbers, and Timeless already generates some very good live+7 viewership. It could flourish there in terms of getting some good numbers, provided that around the same number of people watch live.
Another thing that could come from the move is something that Sakina Jaffrey (Agent Christohper) mentioned during a recent interview we did all about the show — family viewers. Think back to the 10:00 p.m. Eastern timeslot. It doesn’t quite matter if you’re talking about a crime drama or something sci-fi — you’re going to be losing parents of young children or simply people who have to get up early the next morning. This is a show that is roughly PG to PG-13 at best in nature. It’s not a hardcore 10:00 show. Therefore, going earlier in the night could help it immensely pick up some family viewers. Time travel is the sort of thing that flourishes in young people’s imaginations, and they could find a lot to love here even if they didn’t watch the first season of the show.
Over time, we’ve come to accept that the odds of Timeless returning in the same timeslot for the second season are low. NBC will likely try to find something that keeps a greater percentage of its lead-in from The Voice. Meanwhile, the network’s got a pretty solid rotation of shows on Tuesday. Maybe you can argue moving Timeless in for Blindspot, or airing it on Thursday nights, which are a little bit in flux.
For us, though, Fridays could be where it’s at, and the potential key to kingdom for this show to return, retain loyal viewers, and also allow younger fans and parents a chance to watch live. Fingers crossed that NBC won’t need to go back in time down the road and realize that not picking the show up for this timeslot was a mistake.
Should Timeless Fridays happen? Vote in our poll below! (Photo: NBC.)