TV Jots

Show Moved But Not Gone … Yet

This is so not good. The entertainment Internets have been alive lately with the news that CBS has decided to change the time slot for its midseason murder mystery Harper’s Island. As a result, the fairly intriguing series has been banished from its original cushy post-CSI home on Thursdays at 10pm ET to Saturdays at 9pm, effective this weekend, May 2nd. How fast can you say, “Kings, what kind of trend have you started here?”

Better news is that CBS didn’t choose to cancel the 13-week suspense yarn all together, thanks to promising DVR and online viewership data that indicate people’s considerable interest in watching the show … just not when it airs on television.

Said CBS Senior Executive Vice President Prime Time Kelly Kahl: “The preliminary DVR and online streaming data suggest a passionate audience for Harper’s outside its current Thursday time period borders. This move gives us an opportunity to improve the time period on Thursday while experimenting with more original programming on Saturday, and continuing to serve an audience that is clearly engaged in the ongoing Harper’s Island story.”

If Harper’s makes it all the way to the end of its always-intended limited run, we’ll know just how much the network plans to “serve” the show’s fans. Given this move, however, a second season of the series, in a different setting with a different central mystery, seems more unlikely.