Texas (TV Series) - Broadcast History

Broadcast History

The premiere of Texas came at a time when NBC's daytime lineup (consisting of Another World, Days of our Lives, and The Doctors) had fallen into ratings trouble, after a highly successful period in the early and mid-1970s. The show aired from 3:00-4:00 PM (EST) and caused a small domino effect on the NBC daytime schedule: Another World, which 17 months earlier had become daytime's first 90-minute drama, airing from 2:30-4:00 PM, was scaled back to 60 minutes and aired from 2:00-3:00 PM. The Doctors, which aired from 2:00-2:30 PM, moved to 12:30-1:00 PM.

Thanks in no small part to the success of ABC's General Hospital, Texas remained in the bottom echelon of the ratings chart, tying with The Doctors for last place in 1980. However, the show's numbers fell gradually after its first year. The struggles of Texas also had an impact on the ratings of its mother show, Another World, in such a way that the latter show would no longer be NBC's highest rated soap.

By April 1982, the ratings for Texas were at a critical low point, and NBC, as part of a reshuffling of its morning lineup and a last-ditch effort to save the show, moved Texas to the 11:00 AM slot, which the hit game show Wheel of Fortune had previously occupied. As part of this shuffle, NBC moved Wheel of Fortune to 10:30 AM and cancelled Blockbusters and Battlestars. However, this move failed to help Texas in the ratings in any way. In fact, the ratings problems for Texas may have been exacerbated by NBC's move. Although Texas would no longer face off against General Hospital at 3:00 PM, it found itself in a head-to-head duel with CBS' hit game show, The Price is Right. While Wheel of Fortune did cut somewhat into The Price is Right's ratings at 11, Texas was unable to make even the slightest dent in that time slot due to the latter's popularity. Therefore, NBC cancelled Texas and the still-struggling The Doctors (which had been bumped up to Noon to make room for Search for Tomorrow at 12:30 PM) on December 31, 1982. Strangely enough, Somerset, the first spin-off of Another World, aired its finale on the same date six years earlier.

After initially filling the slot with reruns of CHiPs for a few months, NBC would experiment with other programming in the 3 PM timeslot after the move of Texas, as two sixty-minute game shows would occupy the slot over a period of nearly two years. The first of these game shows, Fantasy, ran for thirteen months and ended its run in October 1983 to make room for the Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour, which was cancelled in July 1984. NBC's next offering in that timeslot was the soap Santa Barbara, which ran for nine seasons and was also the last network program NBC aired in that slot; following Santa Barbara's cancellation in 1993, NBC returned the hour to its affiliates.

Following the cancellation of Texas and The Doctors, NBC turned its focus back to game shows. The daytime block led off with the Jim Perry-helmed revival of Sale of the Century at 10:30 a.m. The hour Texas held went to Wheel of Fortune, which Texas had displaced with its move to mornings, and Hit Man, which introduced audiences to Peter Tomarken. The 12:00 noon slot that The Doctors occupied was taken by Just Men!, hosted by Betty White. Of the shows that premiered that day, Sale lasted until 1989, but Hit Man and Just Men! were cancelled after only 13 weeks.