CLEVELAND, Ohio – NBC premiered “The A-Team” on Sunday, Jan. 30, 1983. The high-adrenaline action show became an overnight sensation, running for five seasons.
And one of the main reasons it became an overnight sensation was that this particular Sunday in January 1983 was Super Bowl Sunday. Viewers were introduced to Col. John “Hannibal” Smith and the guys right after the Washington Redskins defeated the Miami Dolphins, 27-17, in Super Bowl XVII.
It helped that it was a competitive Super Bowl, with Miami having the lead going into the fourth quarter. Washington need to score two fourth-quarter touchdowns to secure the victory.
Fox is hoping to borrow a page from the NBC playbook by premiering “24: Legacy,” the reboot of its high-adrenaline action show, after the Super Bowl LI clash between the New England Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons. The clock starts ticking on the new “24” around 10:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 5, on WJW Channel 8. (Read my review of “24: Legacy” here.)
NBC was the first network to launch a new series after a Super Bowl, but that strategy predates “The A-Team.” The prime-time play was first tried on Jan. 21, 1979, after Super Bowl XIII. That’s when the sitcom “Brothers and Sisters” premiered, also on NBC. It quickly failed, demonstrating from the start that a post-Super Bowl premiere did not guarantee success – only a big sampling of viewers.
The networks premiered 11 news shows in the post-Super Bowl spot from 1979 to 1995, and seven of them were flops. From 1996 to 2015, therefore, the more usual play was to take a hit show and make it a bigger hit by airing it after the Super Bowl. This is what ABC did with “Grey’s Anatomy,” CBS did with “Criminal Minds” and NBC did with “The Blacklist.”
Last year, CBS tried something a little different, airing Stephen Colbert’s “The Late Show” after the Super Bowl L meeting of the Denver Broncos and the Carolina Panthers. With Colbert having replaced David Letterman as host, this was an attempt to boost the ratings for a new incarnation of long-running late-night show.
Fox, though, is attempting something of a hybrid play. “24: Legacy,” like Colbert’s “Late Show,” is a new incarnation of a long-running program. But it’s also, in many ways, a new action drama, like “The A-Team.”
The Super Bowl rotates among the three networks with NFL rights: CBS, Fox and NBC. That means NBC will get to decide which post-Super Bowl play to try in February 2018.
While we’re waiting to see how “24: Legacy” fares, here’s a selection of 15 series that premiered after the Super Bowl: five that were super-flops, five that enjoyed long runs and five that were established hits and became even bigger hits.
The misses:
“Brothers and Sisters” (NBC, Jan. 21, 1979): the sitcom lasted 12 episodes.
“MacGruder and Loud” (ABC, Jan. 20, 1985): the police drama lasted 14 episodes.
“The Last Precinct” (NBC, Jan. 22, 1986): the zany police comedy with Adam West and Rick Ducommun lasted eight episodes.
“The Good Life” (NBC, Jan. 30 1994): the comedy featuring Drew Carey lasted 13 episodes.
“Extreme” (ABC, Jan. 29, 1995): the action drama lasted seven episodes.
The hits:
“The A-Team” (NBC, Jan. 30, 1983): five seasons.
“Airwolf” (CBS, Jan. 22, 1984): four seasons.
“The Wonder Years” (ABC, Jan. 31, 1988): six seasons.
“Homicide: Life on the Street” (NBC, Jan. 31, 1993): seven seasons.
“Undercover Boss” (CBS, Feb. 7, 2010): still running.
Established hits that became bigger hits:
“Friends” (NBC, Jan. 28, 1996): Premiered September 1994.
“Malcolm in the Middle” (Fox, Feb. 3, 2002): Premiered January 2000.
“Grey’s Anatomy” (ABC. Feb. 5, 2006): Premiered March 2005.
“Criminal Minds” (CBS, Feb. 4, 2007): Premiered September 2005.
“Elementary” (CBS, Feb. 3, 2013): Premiered September 2012.
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