What's Wrong with FOX?

Yeah, what is wrong with FOX? You'd think that with American Idol
leading the charge for them after all these years the network would
really be trying to capitalize on the strength of that show by building
up the rest of their schedule with successful hits, but the opposite
seems to have been happening. Just look at the numbers below. These are
season-to-date averages for the comparable second or third week period
of January of each year, with 2003-2006 reflecting the first week of
American Idol. But below that you'll see the first week results of
American Idol in both the Tuesday and Wednesday airings and when you
compare those with FOX's STD numbers, you see something odd going on:
American Idol's numbers keep going up as FOX's STD numbers keep
going down. Shouldn't FOX be concentrating on developing mid-season
shows it can air after AI that would be successful enough to carry them
into the fall so that the STD numbers don't keep falling by the time AI
appears again in the winter? Apparently they're not, preferring to
simply coast on AI itself.

ABC CBS NBC FOX UPN WB TOT
2000 8.6 8.9 9.0 6.2 2.6 2.7 38.0
2001 8.8 8.3 8.3 6.4 2.6 2.7 37.1
2002 6.9 8.3 8.0 6.0 2.8 2.5 34.5
2003 6.7 8.4 7.8 5.8 2.4 2.7 33.8
2004 6.2 8.5 7.1 6.2 2.3 2.5 32.8
2005 6.7 8.5 6.7 5.5 2.3 2.3 32.0
2006 7.1 8.4 6.1 5.4 2.2 2.3 31.6

Steven L....

You are not interpreting your own data properly. Here are the
percentage declines for the four major networks, and the total:

ABC: 17%
CBS: 6%
NBC: 32%
FOX: 13%
UPN: 15%
WB: 15%
Total: 17%

FOX declined less than any other network except CBS, and less than the
total. CBS is in the best position, only because today's biggest hits
like Survivor and the CSI franchise are veterans from way back in 2000.
Much tougher for a network to gain market share with new shows,
when the total market keeps declining like that.

American Idol season premiere numbers:

2003 Tue 14.3 Wed 13.8
2004 Tue 16.2 Wed 16.2
2005 Tue 18.3 Wed 15.2
2006 Tue 19.3 Wed 17.8