NBC Saturday Night at The Movies - History - Influence On Other Networks

Influence On Other Networks

Saturday Night at the Movies attracted sufficient ratings so that NBC and its competitors added more movie series to the prime time schedule. ABC, then a distant third in the ratings, immediately added another movie series, Hollywood Special, as a mid-season replacement; however, the series, under its new title The ABC Sunday Night Movie, did not become a regular television program until 1964. CBS was leading the other networks in the ratings at that time and did not immediately add a prime time movie series. However, over the next few years, each of the three networks added weeknight movies to the schedule and by 1968, there was a prime time network movie for every night of the week:

  • The ABC Sunday Night Movie
  • The NBC Monday Movie (originally titled NBC Monday Night at the Movies)
  • NBC Tuesday Night at the Movies
  • The ABC Wednesday Night Movie
  • The CBS Wednesday Night Movies
  • The CBS Thursday Night Movies
  • The CBS Friday Night Movies
  • The CBS Saturday Night Movies
  • NBC Saturday Night at the Movies
  • The CBS Sunday Night Movies

The popularity of these movie broadcasts also provided a windfall profit to the movie studios, since competitive bidding for popular movies raised the price for broadcast rights. This, in turn, made it cost effective to produce "made for TV" movies.

This trend continued and reached its peak in the mid-1970s, when there were 11 or more movies in the weekly network schedule - though some of the "movies" (like Columbo) were actually just a regular television series with longer episodes.

Fox Network had also begun to air films in prime time, as the network has gained more and more popularity with its all-time longest running hit, The Simpsons, but like the "Big Three" networks, Fox also has since cancelled its movie series.

As opposed to ABC, NBC and CBS, Fox aired its movies primarily on Tuesday nights at 7:00 Eastern, though sometimes due to a news broadcast or game, the day of a broadcast might have been changed.

Read more about this topic:  NBC Saturday Night At The Movies, History

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