HAPPY 100TH BONES....nya nya nya nya nya

BONES returns for its 11th season tonight. Here was my love letter to the show after its first 100 episodes. Here's to a great season. 

HAPPY 100^TH BONES....nya nya nya nya nya

Tomorrow I'm going over to the set of BONES to celebrate their 100th episode. I love this show and all that it stands for. BONES has quietly lived on the FOX schedule for five seasons and, with the exception on a few weeks behind American Idol, has occupied an 8pm time slot on Tuesday, Wednesday and now Thursday. So unlike most shows which beg for a lead in, BONES has had to self start through most of its career. Hart Hanson has never complained. He and Stephen Nathan just crank out little gems week after week. Every year when FOX announces a mid-season schedule it seems BONES is destined to move to Friday night and each year it never happens....it's just too good to move over there. Last Fall (2008) we were finally going to move BONES over to Friday when I had an epiphany: Let's move BONES to Thursday at 8, a time period where FOX had one failure after another, I felt it could go into the time period and put us second in 18-49 viewers behind Survivor....needless to say there was quite a bit of skepticism in my shop. I thought it would take a few weeks for BONES to move into second place but it happened immediately. We decided to leave it on Thursday for the start of the 2009 season and pair it up with Fringe. FOX hasn't had a night like this in.....well.....forever. This is a home run for our Sales department....two quality scripted shows on Thursday night....the most valuable night on television. Then a funny thing happened.....Flash Forward.....and that brings us to the lesson in all this......you see BONES isn't "cool"....Flash Forward is "cool" and since "cool" beats not "cool" in the minds of most television critics and many network executives.....BONES was royally fucked.....because how can it possibly survive in the face of Flash Forward? I mean com'on.....really?....BONES v Flash Forward. Well, guess what, after a few weeks Bones started to out rate Flash Forward which is now on hiatus until March (will anyone really remember what was even going on with that show) and the combo of BONES/FRINGE is starting to show signs of coming together as a viable night....FRINGE is starting to creep up on CSI, and BONES has been surging to some of its best ratings ever. I love not "cool" shows. CBS does a lot of them and they do pretty darn well. BONES is a text book example....it's smart, funny and populated by offbeat characters who you want to hang out with each week. That's anathema to a lot of television critics and, honestly to many network programmers as well. So congrats to Hart, Stephen...and props to my pal Josh. Stay uncool my friends.