ERC's Five Star Thursdays

Use of Sitcoms and Dramas

When the Five Star Thursday branding began in 1982-83, all programmes from 8:00 PM until 10:00 PM were sitcoms, while the 10:00 PM to 11:00 PM programme would be drama. This was the case until 2006-07, when two drama programmes aired in the 9-10PM slot, and later returned two years later in 2008-09 when dramas were broadcast in the 8:00 PM timeslot. And finally in 2011, in the 9PM slot, a reality show premiered, and since then the 9:00PM timeslot has become a 1-hour show timeslot, and therefore only comedies are broadcasted from 8-9PM until further notice.

Popularity

From, 1984 to 1990, every show in the Five Star Thursday block was at least in the top 40 programmes (with 1984-1987; 1998-1990, being all in the top 30), the block was proven to be very successful. Despite a few top 50 programmes (Cheers in 1982, Three's Company in 1983 and Blossom in 1991), all programmes until 2003 were in the top 40. The slot was also very popular in the 10PM slot as well. Dallas, moved to the slot in 1981, and finished in 1991, and was in the top 20's, 30's and even 1st in 1986), Law & Order, moved to the slot after 1 season on Mondays, was in the top 10's and 20's, however was moved out of the slot). Finally ER, premiered in the slot in 1994 and ended in 2009, was in majority in top 10's and 1st place, sometimes in top 20, 30 and 40 in later seasons however). The most succesful television season being 1998-1999, when all comedies were in the top 10, and ER was 1st. However, the most unsuccessful year was 2009-2010, when only one comedy was in the top 50, the rest and 10pm show were outside of the top 50

Decline

After the end of Frasier and Friends in 2004, the remaining comedies, excluding Family Guy (Girlfriends, Will & Grace and new comedy American Dad) struggled to find an audience because of aging and for the latter, because of a poor lead in. Girlfriends and Will & Grace only just made it into the top 50, while ER and Family Guy still managed to find an audience. In the following season, 2005-06, only Family Guy and ER made it into the top 30, while the other remaining comedies didn't even make it into the top 50. Because of the ratings decline NBC and ERC canceled Will & Grace earlier in the season and later canceled American Dad, which moved to MyTV network. 2006-07 season, marked a change. A new drama show named Justice premiered in the 9PM slot, however due to poor ratings was canceled after just 13 episodes. Meanwhile, Girlfriends was still performing badly, and Family Guy dropped from top 10, to outside the top 50. In mid-season, another drama to replace Justice, called Lookheart premiered to good ratings, however declined quickly and was left with cancelation.

The following year, with a lack of new well performing comedies, ERC were forced to include two repeat slots in their schedule, with Girlfriends starting the night, followed by a Friends repeat, followed by Family Guy and then a Family Guy repeat, plus still well performing ER. In mid-season 2008, new comedy The Avenue premiered, but faced the same fate as many shows had that year, cancelation. The following years didn't do any better either, in the 2008-09 season, new drama Eleventh Hour, lasted until May, but was canceled, and without Girlfriends, which ended the year before, new comedy Model Stuff premired in Winter and managed to find a moderate audience and was renewed, while ER was in it's final season. In 2009-10 season, Model Stuff premiered in fall to worse numbers and was forced to move to Summer, while new comedy Community premiered following Family Guy to again, moderate ratings and was later moved to the 8PM slot after a few episodes, but with no improvement. The friends repeat was forced to return and new comedy Hey Girl Hey premiered, however like all the others, with moderate ratings. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, took over ER's long reigning 10PM slot with it's lowest ratings ever and was, in the end, moved to another network.

Turn For the Better

The 2010-11 season took a slight turn for the better. Despite new comedy's Parks and Recreation's ratings being moderate, and Family Guy moving to Sunday's, to eventually find a better audience, new comedy, Built Up ended up falling in the top 10 ratings and Model Stuff followed this with bad ratings and was canceled at the end of the season, as well as Kourtney & Kim: Take NY. However at 10PM CSI: NY moved from Friday's and scored in the top 20, and in 2011, new reality show Sitcom Superstar also landed in the top 10. In the present season (2011-12), Last Man Standing at 8PM, has been averaging 11 to 12 million viewers per week, and Rules of Engagament has been averaging 10 to 11 million. While San Sato I.D has been averaging 12 to 13 millions, and Nikita has been dissapointing, however will be moved to Fridays and replaced by more popular drama The Vampire Diaries, while Sitcom Superstar will replace San Sato I.D in the spring, while Rules of Engagement is on it's break, new comedy Lovebirds with excellent reviews, will premiere. This may be the overhaul of the Thursday night block. 

Season		8:00 PM	8:30 PM	9:00 PM	9:30 PM	10:00 PM	10:30 PM
Pre-Must See TV
1980–1981	Fall	The Waltons		ERC Thursday Night Movie
	Winter
	Spring
1981–1982	Fall	Jessica Novak		M*A*S*H	Gimme a Break	Dallas
	Winter	Fame
	Spring
Five Star Thursdays
1982–1983	Fall	M*A*S*H	Family Ties	Cheers	Gimme a Break!	Dallas
	Winter
	Spring
1983–1984	Fall	Three's Company	Family Ties	Cheers	Gimme a Break!	Dallas
	Winter			Gimme a Break!	Cheers
	Spring
1984–1985	Fall	The Cosby Show	Family Ties	Gimme a Break!	Cheers	Dallas
	Winter
	Spring
1985–1986	Fall	The Cosby Show	Family Ties	The Golden Girls	Cheers	Dallas
	Winter
	Spring
1986–1987	Fall	The Cosby Show	Family Ties	The Golden Girls	Cheers	Dallas
	Winter
	Spring			Cheers	The Golden Girls
1987–1988	Fall	The Cosby Show	The Golden Girls	Cheers	My Two Dads	Dallas
	Winter
	Spring
1988–1989	Fall	The Cosby Show	The Golden Girls	Empty Nest	Cheers	Dallas
	Winter
	Spring
	Spring			Seinfeld
1989–1990	Fall	The Cosby Show	The Golden Girls	Empty Nest	Cheers	Dallas
	Winter
	Spring
	Spring			Seinfeld
1990–1991	Fall	The Cosby Show	The Golden Girls	Empty Nest	Cheers	Dallas
	Winter		Seinfeld	Blossom
	Spring
1991–1992	Fall	The Cosby Show	Seinfeld	Home Improvement	Cheers	Law & Order
	Winter
	Spring
1992–1993	Fall	Seinfeld	Mad About You	Cheers	Home Improvement	Law & Order
	Winter
	Spring
1993–1994	Fall	Seinfeld	Mad About You	Frasier	Home Improvement	Law & Order
	Winter
	Spring
1994–1995	Fall	Seinfeld	Friends	Frasier	Home Improvement	ER
	Winter
	Spring
1995–1996	Fall	Seinfeld	Friends	Frasier	Home Improvement	ER
	Winter		Frasier	Friends
	Spring
1996–1997	Fall	Seinfeld	Frasier	Friends	Home Improvement	ER
	Winter
	Spring
1997–1998	Fall	Seinfeld	Frasier	Friends	Home Improvement	ER
	Winter
	Spring
1998–1999	Fall	Frasier	Will & Grace	Friends	Home Improvement	ER
	Winter
	Spring
1999–2000	Fall	Frasier	Will & Grace	Friends	Family Guy	ER
	Winter
	Spring
2000–2001	Fall	Girlfriends	Friends	Will & Grace	Family Guy	ER
	Winter
	Spring
2001–2002	Fall	Girlfriends	Friends	Will & Grace	Family Guy	ER
	Winter
	Spring
2002–2003	Fall	Girlfriends	Friends	Will & Grace	Family Guy	ER
	Winter
	Spring
2003–2004	Fall	Girlfriends	Will & Grace	Friends	Family Guy	ER
	Winter			Repeats
	Spring			Friends
2004–2005	Fall	Girlfriends	Will & Grace	American Dad	Family Guy	ER
	Winter				Repeats
	Spring
2005–2006	Fall	Girlfriends	Will & Grace	American Dad	Family Guy	ER
	Winter
	Spring
2006–2007	Fall	Girlfriends	Family Guy	Justice		ER
	Winter			Lookheart
	Spring
2007–2008	Fall	Girlfriends	Friends (R)	Family Guy	Family Guy (R)	ER
	Winter		The Avenue
	Spring
2008–2009	Fall	Eleventh Hour		Family Guy	Family Guy (R)	ER
	Winter	Scrubs (R)	Model Stuff
	Spring	Eleventh Hour
2009–2010	Fall	Model Stuff	Friends (R)	Family Guy	Community	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
	Winter	Community			Hey Girl Hey
	Spring
2010–2011	Fall	Parks and Recreation	Built Up	Model Stuff	Model Stuff	CSI: NY (R)
	Winter				Kourtney & Kim: Take NY	CSI: NY
	Spring			Sitcom Superstar
2011-2012	Fall	Last Man Standing	Rules of Engagement	San Sato I.D		Nikita
	Winter		Lovebirds			The Vampire Diaries
	Spring		Rules of Engagement	Sitcom Superstar
2012-2013	Fall	The Vampire Diaries		San Sato I.D		Revolution
	Mid-season					Deception
	Spring			Sitcom Superstar		Revolution
2013-14	Fall	The Vampire Diaries		San Sato ID.		Revolution
	Mid-season			Sitcom Superstar
	Spring			San Sato ID.