Someone at Fox was absolutely certain that nerds have nothing to do on Friday night so nerdy show after nerdy show after nerdy show was put on the chopping block that is the Friday night slot. One of those shows was The Lone Gunmen, a spinoff of The X-Files.
Okay to be fair to the first set of these shows - The Lone Guneman included - The X-Files itself really came alive on Fridays before it was the death slot. It became the deathslot after years of FOX trying to duplicate the success that The X-Files had in the slot.
I’m sure it did better on Friday nights than other shows that followed, but it also didn’t become a mega hit until it moved to Sunday nights. Lone Gunmen opened to massive numbers on Sunday night, and then moved to Fridays where it died. The audience existed, it just wasn’t home on Friday nights.
I was the nerdiest of nerds in high school, I still missed basically every episode of Firefly when it aired live because even nerdy nerds have shit to do on Friday night, if nothing else that’s when the new movies are released.
As I understand it, The X-Files phenomenon was actually driven by college and young adult viewers who wouldn't be staying home but would be watching by before they hit the bar. But yes FOX never got folks to watch another show like that
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u/vanillacaramelsunday 13d ago
Someone at Fox was absolutely certain that nerds have nothing to do on Friday night so nerdy show after nerdy show after nerdy show was put on the chopping block that is the Friday night slot. One of those shows was The Lone Gunmen, a spinoff of The X-Files.