In its attempt to ward off CBS’ “Survivor: The Australian Outback” from muscling in on its ratings, NBC is planning a heftier-sized “Friends” followed by snippets of “Saturday Night Live” on Thursday nights.
NBC’s 8 p.m. hour will feature an extended version of “Friends” (about six minutes longer than normal) in the hopes of keeping TV viewers from switching the channel, Daily Variety reports.
The rest of the hour will be filled with a shortened primetime version of “SNL” beginning in February for sweeps month. In case you were wondering, yes, “SNL” will be live from New York and feature the regular cast.
With commercials, the new supersize episodes of “Friends” will end at about 8:40 p.m. during the month. “SNL” will reportedly only fill the rest of the hour during the first two weeks.
NBC brass haven’t said what they’ll fill the rest of the hour with during the final two weeks
