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GOOD WEEK/BAD WEEK: February 8, 2014

GOOD WEEK: CBS MONDAY
CBS Mondays have had a tough go recently with 2 Broke Girls not working as an anchor, instant bombs in We Are Men and Partners, and a huge hole at 10pm. Things still aren't great but they're looking up as How I Met Your Mother heads towards its final episode at the end of March. Mother has been delivering a powerful 3.8 demo at 8pm the past two weeks and it has brought the entire night up, even Intelligence at 10pm. CBS needs as many good weeks as possible before Mother leaves because then there are major questions about what will happen to a night that has had comedy institutions like I Love Lucy, The Andy Griffith Show, Murphy Brown, and Everybody Loves Raymond for decades.

BAD WEEK: SUPER BOWL LEAD-OUTS
The Super Bowl lead-out slot is seeming less and less important with each passing year. Last year, CBS gave the slot to new drama Elementary. After delivering low numbers for a post-Super Bowl show, Elementary got no bump in its Thursday night slot. This year, FOX gave the slot to New Girl and the buzzy but low-rated Brooklyn Nine-Nine. They did decently out of the Super Bowl but then were actually down from the previous week in their regular timeslot. Since established shows are doing nothing here, the networks need to consider either reality (The Voice did huge numbers in 2012) or launching a brand new show. Something like the pilot of an event series might work well.

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