Monica, Chandler and the rest of the New York urbanite set beware, for the uncivilized, money-mongering tribal-types from “Survivor 2” are aiming to hone into your turf.
In a move to nip a piece off the Thursday night pie, CBS has announced that the network will schedule “Survivor: The Australian Outback” — the sequel to the history-making reality-TV gameshow that brought a naked Richard Hatch into millions of households — on Thursday night at 8 p.m. starting Feb. 1, smack opposite NBC’s comedy tentpole “Friends.”
The network’s maneuver went against the expectation of some industry insiders who thought that CBS would keep the sequel in the original Wednesday, 8 p.m. time slot.
‘Friends’ But according to CBS, its decision has less to do with curbing the Thursday night dominance of rival network NBC than to breathe life into its weak lineup for that night.
“In laying out all the options, ultimately it came down to what could most benefit our schedule overall,” Kelly Kahl, senior vice president of program planning and scheduling at CBS, told Daily Variety. “We needed a series to help bring some people to our network on that night.”
“Survivor: The Australian Outback” will bow Jan. 28 after the Super Bowl, after which, it will move to its Thursday night regular spot.
