Off the top of my head that'd be

ABC, The WB and Fox.
Alias v Smallville v The O.C v Survivor v Joey/Will and Grace v Everybody Loves Chris

The ONLY show to perform even near expectations was smallville; Everybody loves chris had a great start but the erosion for the show is much larger than expected - and Survivor is also down year on year; with Alias, Joey AND The O.C having their worst starts since the shows began.

The networks are stubborn in trying to make this anything else BUT CBS' night - and ABC averaged 7 million viewers yesterday as a result. Why would networks possibly think that putting 3 of the biggest cult shows head to head with one of the biggest reality shows in history AND each other AND an hour of popular sitcoms would be even a mildly good idea? ABC claim that moving Alias to thursday nights was a move to give the network a more robust overall even schedule - and yet as we can see such logic only hurts the shows viewership and actually angers the viewers in turmoil over what to watch more than anything else. I feel its actually not fair on Alias viewers who have constantly been nervous about a renewal - its a bit of a bitchslap to our dedicated viewership.

CBS - Criminal Minds
Duhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Criminal Minds had huge sampling post CSI and it would have been CSI's perfect partner - but no. The show was moved to go head to head with one of the biggest ratings behemoths in years - that'd be Lost then. Two dramas going head to head always provides poor dividends - and where Criminal Minds could have taken off its been relegated to failure. CBS should look at how Desperate Housewives and Greys Anatomy partner up to hook the same demographic for the entire night; and they should do the same with CSI.

It's not a bad scheduling move if you consider that the only reason it is still on the air is they are doing a favor to Abrams cause they are so grateful for Lost. If Lost had stunk and been cancelled, Alias probably wouldn't be around anymore. So they stick it in a time slot they know is doomed rather than put something that might break out and be a hit.

UPN moving VERONICA MARS to Wednesday. NBC moving the WEST WING.

ABC doesn't need to worry about Thursday too much. But yes, they should relocate ALIAS back to Wednesday if INVASION drops below 10m.

Out of all moves, the only dumb move from the get-go was The West Wing. Everything else was EASILY justifiable. When Joey was more than 50% below Friends' ratings, the networks jumped at a prime spot. Unfortunately, nothing is emerging as a true winner in the timeslot, aside from the always reliable Survivor.

Right; not that its the drama that singlehandedly kept ABC afloat for like 3 years. Alias was the ONLY hit drama ABC had in a very long time. Your exaggarating the networks success; aside from Lost, Desperate Housewives, Greys Anatomy and Commander in Chief - ABCs still very dry on the original drama front; the new season debuts have been very mediocre and Night Stalker is DOA.

The ABC board like Alias a lot. It also provides hefty returns on DVD and merchandise fronts; the latter moreso than any ABC show if i recall correctly.

I think Night Stalker might improve. I hear the episode following are much better than the Pilot. its 18-49 was higher than Alias'.

7.1m viewers is lower than the debut of "Eyes". Eyes was cancelled after like 6 shows.

And Alias' 18-49 wasn't impressive at all; so building on that is no big feat.

Moving Futurama to 6pm on sundays. It was a death sentence.

Again, go to hell, Fox.

I think Alias on Thursday is its best spot. Any other night if it only got 7 millions, it would be cancelled quickly. But thats ABC's best position for Thursday nights so it works. Same with Fox, 6-7 million is bad, but its a hell lot better than anything else they try to put up that night.

They already have a compatible lead-out for CSI in "Without a Trace." Plus, the second episode of CI still garnered over 10 million viewers opposite "Lost" so it's not doing too bad at all.

"Night Stalker" airing opposite CSI really doesn't make sense. If anything they should air it on Sundays before Desperate Housewives because "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" is an incredibly lame show that deserves to be canned for being of such low quality, regardless of ratings.

Another poor scheduling choice is airing the new show "Bones" BEFORE "House." It would make infinitely more sense to air "Bones" after "House" so it could benefit from its hit lead-in. A related issue is that Fox should combine "Bones" and "Killer Instinct" (two crime dramas) on the same night instead of airing "Instinct" after two comedies (Bernia Mac and Malcom in the Middle) which one wouldn't think share too much crossover appeal.

Without a Trace can easily hold itself on another night now; they should use CSI to build up new shows; like ABC is doing.

When they stuck our beloved Mole on Friday nights.

ABC will pay one of these days...

Eyes was up against two fading crime shows. Night Stalker was up against CSFUCKINGI and The Apprentice.

And CBS was usingCSI to give Criminal Minds an audience so the network didn't falter against Lost, the very same thing you were just talking about. Duhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Anyway, Moving The West Wing to Sundays was the most obvious death sentence in a while. And I second Squee anger @ Fox. Grrrrrrr.

I haven't forgiven them since.

Which combined to give an audience of well over 27m.
The Apprentice's ratings are way down this year; the only competition is CSI.
If you know that I watch the ratings then you must think im stupid not to have seen Criminal Minds after CSI - but my point that i was making was that Criminal Minds' ratings post CSI were very, very impressive. They should stick it there for a season and see how it pans out - and THEN once its built a solid following [which dosent happen in a week] move it to its own slot.

Alias to Thursdays, btw The Night Stalker is a good show.

Im willing to bed that ABC are going to be doing something about their new Thursdays pretty fast; they are damaging Alias' potential for future seasons by placing it on a Thursday and im guessing that whilst they look at the 18-49 ratings they are seeing that it possibly wasn't a good idea to put it head to head with 5 other shows battling for the same demographic.
They've already hurt the season enough by placing it in the timeslot and its time to switch it with Invasion. Now.

Nighstalker is a dead weight; its actually doing worse than last years "Eyes" and pretty much every show ABC has ever pulled. I expect a cancellation within weeks.

Alias isn't that great, even though people seemed to have convinced themselves that it is. It will never get very high ratings, no matter when it's on.

Thats called a MATTER OF GENERAL OPINON joe.
You know IMDB.COM? Yahoo Grades? They are all opinon consensus'; and i find the insinuation that I have dedicated myself to a bad show pretty damn insulting; but then again thats exactly your intention.

I don't like the show (It started out good but I quickly lost interest). You like the show, why care what I think? Everyone is allowed to have their own opinion. That's the way things work. No biggie.

So why are you telling us that "People shouldn't have convinced themselves that alias is good when its clearly not"; we are allowed to have our own damn opinon.

I'm expressing my opinion. Isn't that the purpose of these boards in the first place?

ABC could just want to kill Alias off this season. The optimists thought maybe it was a move to attract the Alias audience to Thursdays, and I think it's done that to an extent, but if ABC has other plans, it won't matter. They got a lot of big hits right now, but Alias always has its own audience, so... it could go either way, I suppose.

I think ABC feels that, if it can't be a hit on it's own after 4 seasons, it'll never be one, so it's best to go with Abrams 5-season pan, let Garner raise her baby without havcing to constantly leave for the show, and take it off the air this season.

Makes sense to me.