HOLLYWOOD ABC is benching another of its freshman comedies,"Madigan Men," in a shakeup that makes room for another reality-based game show, "The Mole."
Beginning Jan. 9, when "The Mole" makes its premiere Tuesdays at 7p.m., the network will move its Tuesday edition of "Who Wants To Be aMillionaire" to Friday at 7 p.m., where it will be followed by thesitcoms "Two Guys and a Girl" at 8 and "Norm" at 8:30.
ABC, which scrapped its young-adult-themed "TGIF" Friday nightformat after last season, had hoped to build an audience there withestablished and new sitcoms this season. But the new series "TheTrouble With Normal," pulled at the beginning of the November sweepsperiod, and "Madigan Men," starring Gabriel Byrne as an Irish-American father, have struggled.
The pedigree of "The Mole," is much like CBS' highly successful"Survivor" and its less successful "Big Brother"-a European import(in this case, Belgium) in which everyday citizens are drafted intoextreme situations and compete for cash. In "The Mole," 10contestants work to complete a set of physical tasks while trying tofigure out who among them is sabotaging their efforts. "The Mole"will run for nine weeks.
ABC executives, meanwhile, have been rigorously disputing thattheir in-house juggernaut, "Millionaire," is wearing down. AlthoughABC commanded the largest viewership during the November sweeps, forinstance, it did so at a reduced margin from recent sweeps periods,and NBC took home first place among the coveted 18- to 49-year-oldviewership.
The reshuffling puts "Millionaire" on Fridays, a less competitivenight for the broadcast networks. Stu Bloomberg, co-chairman of theABC Television Group, said moving "Millionaire" to Friday was donesimply to repair a struggling night.
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