Itis February, and those into TV are probably aware that February is "Sweeps Month." This is the period that decides advertising rates for the rest of the season, so the networks tend to pull out all the stops in an effort to get as many viewers as possible. Thursday night is one of the most valuable nights of the week, largely due to the fact that this is when movie advertisements begin and media buyers for the distribution houses usually pay full rates because they have to buy at the last minute by their very nature. The king of TV has long been the Thursday night spot on NBC with the Cosby Show in the 80is, followed by Seinfeld, and the current #1 show, Friends. However, there is a dark challenger to the Friendsi throne in the form of Survivor 2 on CBS.
NBC is fighting back by making Friends into a 40 minute show throughout February, followed by 20 minutes of Saturday Night Live that is actually live. Another tactic often employed during Sweeps is to have big-name guest stars on shows. Friends is taking this path, but they are taking it one step farther. Thatis right, they pulled out the Macs to really bring in the viewers. Not only did former Seinfeld co-star Jason Alexander appear in last nightis show, on his desk sat a Ruby iMac, and on the desk of a secretary behind him were two 21" Graphite Studio Displays.
So if Friends retains its #1 ranking, we know it was all because of a little help from some Macs. :-)