Lead-ins and lead-outs Broadcasters may schedule a program to air before or after a widely viewed
tent-pole program, such as a popular series, or a special such as a high-profile
sporting event (such as, in the United States, the
Super Bowl), in the hope that
audience flow will encourage the audience to tune-in early or stay for the second program. The second program is usually one that the broadcaster wants to promote to a wider audience, such as a new or lower-profile series. Lead-outs are typically chosen to appeal to similar
demographics as the program which preceded it, in an effort to retain as much of the audience as possible; for example,
Spike TV's scheduling of the
mixed martial arts reality series
The Ultimate Fighter as a lead-out for the
professional wrestling show
Monday Night Raw resulted in a 36% increase in viewership in the time slot, with the program retaining 57% of
Raw's audience among young adult males. In some cases, a lead-in may be an episode of a series that has a tie-in or relevance to the lead-out, such as
BBC One scheduling a
Doctor Who episode parodying the
Eurovision Song Contest as a lead-in for its live broadcast of the
2025 edition. In turn, the episode was also a lead-out for the
2025 FA Cup final; the hammocking of the episode between two live events proved to be risky, as the episode could have been preempted if the FA Cup match went to
extra time. However, this did not prove to be the case, and the episode was the third-highest rated program of the night, behind only the FA Cup and Eurovision themselves. Lead-outs can sometimes help to launch new programs and talent.
NBC premiered
Late Night in 1982 as a lead-out for its long-running
late-night talk show The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, which helped launch the career of its host
David Letterman, and influence later entries in the genre.
Late Night would continue as a franchise with hosts such as
Conan O'Brien and
Jimmy Fallon—both of whom would later go on to host
The Tonight Show. In the 1993–94 season,
Fox scheduled
The X-Files as a lead-out for its
sci-fi western The Adventures of Brisco County Jr., with the expectation that
Brisco County Jr. would serve as the anchor of its Friday-night lineup. However,
The X-Files proved to be significantly more successful, and would eventually run for nine seasons. By contrast, viewership for
Brisco County Jr. declined throughout the season, and the show was cancelled. Fox attempted to use other sci-fi shows as a lead-in for
The X-Files (such as
Sliders and
VR.5), but they were similarly unsuccessful. A weak lead-in can have an impact on the viewership of programs that follow; NBC's 2009 attempt to
strip the talk show
The Jay Leno Show (a spiritual successor to Leno's tenure of
The Tonight Show after Conan O'Brien
succeeded him) in a 10:00 p.m. ET/PT timeslot proved detrimental to the viewership of late local newscasts on its affiliates. NBC subsequently announced plans to shorten
The Jay Leno Show to a half hour and move it to 11:35 p.m. ET/PT in late-February 2010, displacing
The Tonight Show from its traditional timeslot. This proposal led to a
public conflict between O'Brien and NBC, and ultimately resulted in his departure from the network, and the reinstatement of Jay Leno as host of
The Tonight Show. A type of lead-out popularized by some series is an
aftershow—a supplemental
talk show devoted to the preceding program. They usually feature discussion and analysis of its most recent episode, interviews with cast members and celebrity fans of the series, behind-the-scenes features, as well as audience and viewer interactivity. These formats were employed by networks such as
AMC (which aired series such as
Talking Dead for
The Walking Dead), where they served as a cost-effective lead-out that could retain viewers and appeal to
fans of a popular series.
Blocks Block programming is the practice of scheduling a group of complementary programs together. Blocks are typically built around specific genres (i.e. a block focusing specifically on
sitcoms), target audiences, or other factors, with their programming often promoted collectively under blanket titles (such as
ABC's "
TGIF" lineup and
NBC's "
Must See TV").
Bridging Bridging is the practice of discouraging the audience from changing channels during the "junctions" between specific programs. This can be done, primarily, by airing promos for the next program near the end of the preceding program, such as during its credits, or reducing the length of the junction between two programs as much as possible (
hot switching). The host of the next program may similarly make a brief appearance near the end of the preceding program (sometimes interacting directly with the host) to provide a preview; in
news broadcasting, this is typically referred to as a "throw" or "toss". A bridge was used by
ABC between
Roseanne and the December 1992 series premiere of
The Jackie Thomas Show, a new sitcom co-created by
Roseanne and
Tom Arnold of
Roseanne fame. A scene of the Connor family watching its opening on TV seamlessly transitioned into the program itself, with no junction in between. ABC commissioned a minute-by-minute Nielsen ratings report, which showed that the majority of viewers from
Roseanne had been retained during the premiere. In June 2007, CBS scheduled a prime time encore of the season finale of
The Price is Right—the final episode hosted by long-time emcee
Bob Barker—as a lead-in to its telecast of the
34th Daytime Emmy Awards (where Barker and
Price respectively won the awards for
Outstanding Game Show Host and
Outstanding Game Show), with an additional bridge scene featuring Barker. Owing to both programs'
news comedy formats, the
Comedy Central program
The Daily Show used newscast-style toss segments to promote its new spin-off and lead-out,
The Colbert Report, in which host
Jon Stewart would engage in a comedic conversation with the latter's host,
Stephen Colbert, via
split-screen. In some cases, a channel may intentionally allow a program to overrun into the next half-hour timeslot rather than end exactly on the half-hour, in order to discourage viewers from
"surfing" away at traditional junction periods (since they had missed the beginnings of programs on other channels already). This can, however, cause disruptions with recorders if they are not aware of the scheduling (typically,
digital video recorders can be configured to automatically record for a set length of time before and after a schedule's given timeslot in
program guide data to account for possible variances). For a period,
TBS intentionally scheduled all of its programs at 5 and 35 minutes past the hour rather than exactly on the half hour (a practice it marketed as "Turner Time"), to attract viewers tuning away from other channels.
Crossovers Crossovers can be organized between multiple programs, in which a single storyline is extended across episodes of two or more separate programs. Typically, these involve programs that form a single franchise or
shared universe, such as NBC's
Chicago franchise and
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (all created by
Dick Wolf), and the
ABC dramas ''
Grey's Anatomy and Station 19'' (both created by
Shonda Rhimes).
Counterprogramming Counterprogramming is the practice of deliberately scheduling programming to attract viewers away from another, major program. Counterprogramming efforts often involve scheduling a contrasting program of a different genre or demographic, targeting viewers who may not be interested in the major program (such as a sporting event, which typically draws a predominantly-male audience, against an awards show that attracts a predominantly-female audience). Despite frequently being among the top U.S. television broadcasts of all time, the
Super Bowl has had a prominent history of being
counterprogrammed in this manner. One of the most prominent examples of this practice was
Fox's
1992 airing of a special live episode of
In Living Color against the game's
halftime show. Programs can also be counterprogrammed by a direct competitor in the same time slot, often resulting in the two programs attempting to attract viewers away from each other through
publicity stunts and other tactics. These tactics have most notably been seen in counterprogramming efforts surrounding
professional wrestling:
WWE was known for its conflicts with the rival
Jim Crockett Promotions, and the latter's corporate successor
World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in the 1980s and 1990s (such as the
Monday Night Wars between
WWF Monday Night Raw and
WCW Monday Nitro), and has since engaged in similar conflicts in the 2020s with the upstart
All Elite Wrestling (such as the
Wednesday Night Wars between
AEW Dynamite and
WWE NXT, as well as patterns of WWE deliberately scheduling supercards and specials on the same day as major AEW pay-per-views). In some cases, broadcasters may attempt to adjust their schedules in order to avert attempts at counterprogramming, such as getting a slightly earlier time slot (in the hope that once viewers have become committed to a show they will not switch channels),
Dayparting Dayparting is the practice of dividing the
day into several parts, during each of which a different type program is appropriate for that time is aired.
Daytime television shows are most often geared toward a particular
demographic, and what the
target audience typically engages in at that time.
Stripping Stripping is the practice of running a single series in a consistent, daily time slot throughout the week, usually on weekdays. Daytime programs such as talk shows,
variety shows,
court shows,
game shows, and
soap operas, are typically aired in a strip format. Outside of serial drama formats such as
telenovelas where popular, strips are rarely used for first-run entertainment programming outside of limited
events. Syndicated reruns of network programs that originally aired on a weekly basis are often aired as strips. Shows that are syndicated in this way generally have to have run for several seasons (the rule of thumb is usually
100 episodes) in order to have enough episodes to run without significant
repeats.
Marathons A
marathon is the scheduling of a continuous, long-term block of programming as an event, usually devoted to airings of a single program or film franchise. When conducted using television series, a marathon may either consist of episodes aired in sequential order, or focus on episodes with specific themes (such as a holiday, or appearances by a specific actor or character). Marathons are often aired on holidays (such as
Syfy's annual
The Twilight Zone marathon on
New Year's Day, and
Game Show Network airing a "Y2Play" marathon of
game show series finales on
New Year's Eve in 1999, hosted by comedian and recurring
Match Game panelist
Charles Nelson Reilly), as counterprogramming for major events airing on other channels, to lead into new episodes of a series, or to commemorate milestones/events surrounding a specific series or franchise (such as an anniversary, or the network's acquisition of rights to broadcast a certain series or franchise). Some marathons may focus on the roles of a specific entertainer; the death of
Betty White resulted in several networks scheduling marathons of programming on or around January 17, 2022—which would have been White's 100th birthday—featuring her television appearances, such as Hallmark Channel airing a marathon of
The Golden Girls, and both
Buzzr and Game Show Network airing marathons of her game show appearances To compete with streaming services such as Netflix releasing entire seasons of programs at once rather than releasing them on a week-to-week basis,
TBS premiered seasons of its
police sitcom
Angie Tribeca in a marathon format.'''' Similarly,
free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) services often feature linear channels that are narrowly focused towards specific programs or franchises.
Theming A broadcaster may temporarily dedicate all or parts of its schedule over a period of time to a specific theme. A well-known instance of a themed lineup is
Discovery Channel's annual "
Shark Week". Themed schedules are a common practice around major
holidays—such as
Valentine's Day,
Halloween, and
Christmas—where channels may air episodes of programs,
specials, and films that relate to the holiday. Channels may also air marathons of their signature programs and film rights to target viewers who are on vacation. The U.S. basic cable networks
Freeform (
25 Days of Christmas, 31 Days of Halloween) and
Hallmark Channel are known for broadcasting long-term holiday programming events. After experiencing success with its
Countdown to Christmas event, Hallmark Channel adopted a practice of dividing its programming into similarly branded "seasons" year-round, which are accompanied by thematically appropriate original series and
television films. This strategy was part of an effort to position the channel as "a year-round destination for celebrations", and is synergistic with
Hallmark Cards' core
greeting card and collectibles businesses.
Turner Classic Movies similarly airs multiple themed programming events throughout the year, including the "Star of the Month" and "Summer Under the Stars"—which both showcase the roles of a specific actor, and "31 Days of Oscar"—which showcases notable nominees and winners of the
Academy Awards.
Time slot A show's
time slot or place in the schedule could be crucial to its success or failure; generally, earlier prime time slots have a stronger appeal towards family viewing and younger demographics, while later time slots generally appeal more towards older demographics. Some time slots, colloquially known as "
graveyard slots" or "death slots", are prone to having smaller potential audiences (with one such example in the U.S. being
Friday nights), or insurmountable competition from highly rated series. ==See also==