The Australian Outback.
Or Central Park.
For the second-straight week in what is showing signs of being a season flooded with ever-raging rating wars, “Friends” and “Survivor II” square off tonight in the continuing battle to be dubbed the champion of Thursday night television.
The popularity of the two shows is ironic - as they have little in common. One’s a sitcom based in the Big Apple. The other’s a reality-based game show filmed in the land Down Under.
“Friends” stars six actors, playing friends, who make millions of dollars each episode while “Survivor II” has 16 contestants vying for only one million dollars.
No preference freshman Eric Melone can describe the shows’ differences other ways.
“The women on ‘Friends’ are more attractive than the women on ‘Survivor,’” Melone said of Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox Arquette and Lisa Kudrow.
Their differences aside, there is one big similarity - high ratings. And “Survivor II” is the show that’s recently taken the spotlight away from “Friends,” NBC’s most reliable show in recent years.
“‘Friends,’ didn’t take as big of a hit as lots of people thought they would,” said Mark McClellan, marketing manager for WILX, the area’s NBC affiliate.
Yet the show experienced a stumble last week when the two blockbusters faced off for the first time. The survivors raked in a 17.1 Nielsen Media Research rating, while the friends tallied a 16.6.
Some 29 million viewers chose to watch contestants match wits, while 22 million opted for the latest happenings with Ross and Rachel.
Winning the first round, CBS was aided by the popularity of the Australian Outback’s predecessor, “Survivor,” which drew nearly 52 million viewers for its two-hour finale last year.
Telecommunication junior Amanda Brehm and her friends say they have a taste for both shows.
“We planned on watching ‘Friends’ (last week) but I switched during commercials and they were eating bugs and I didn’t turn back,” Brehm said.
“I plan on watching ‘Survivor’ from now on.”
While last week’s ratings gap appears narrow, it was the first time in recent memory any show has shown the threat to consistently challenge “Friends.”
The matchup itself forced network big-wigs to get creative.
The end result?
NBC has super-sized “Friends” to 40 minutes, and will round out the hour with 20 minutes of original “Saturday Night Live” clips.
Still, the surging “Survivor” popularity beat out the 10 extra minutes of Chandler Bing and company, accompanied by the kooky SNL special by nearly seven million viewers last week.
So what’s at stake in the battle for Thursday superiority? The war has potential to knock NBC from its late-week throne - a seat it’s held dating back to the days of “Cheers” and “Seinfeld.”
However, the network struck a thunderous blow last week by winning the night with its top-rated show “ER,” according to the Nielsen Ratings.
But Thursday night was a big hit for TV in general, with a reported 30 percent increase in viewership - and NBC beat its season average by grabbing more than one million extra viewers.
Even ABC gets into the fight during the heated time slot. Its back-to-back episodes of the improvisational hit “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” hosted by comedian Drew Carey, is gaining in popularity.
But NBC’s “Must-See TV” Thursdays have been a hit for quite some time now, with the likes of hospital drama “ER” and comedy “Will & Grace.”
Their shows, though, may be outdated and less appealing to younger audiences.
The battle between “Survivor” and “Friends,” is more than a battle for viewership, said Gary Hoppenstand, associate chairman of the American Thought and Language Department and an MSU film professor.
He noted that “Friends” will be popular long after “Survivor” exits TV land.
“It’s a competition between the reality television show and the classic sitcom,” he said. “There won’t be reruns of ‘Survivor’ in 20 years, but ‘Friends’ will definitely be in syndication then.”
So whether it be for future syndication or ratings vindication, NBC will likely continue striking a friendly blow to CBS’ new-found surge in hopes of maintaining its entertainment as “must-see.”
It’s Thursday night in the brawl for it all.
The 8 p.m. slot.
Staff writer Ryan Weltzer contributed to this report.
Justin D. Brown can be reached at brownj72@msu.edu.
