Repeats, Reality and ‘Yellowstone’: How Network TV Is Marketing Fall Lineups Without Many Scripted Favorites

Here we are, just days away from the start of the 2023-24 television season and the major networks still arent 100% sure what theyre doing. Just last week, several broadcasters scrambled to make even more last minute schedule changes on top of other recently announced tweaks. The fall lineups that viewers tune into later this month will be remarkably different than the ones first announced in May.

At CBS, the Paramount+ Australia import NCIS: Sydney has suddenly landed on our shores, and will run on Monday nights. Fox just decided to push the return of its unscripted music gamer I Can See Your Voice to midseason and replace it with 9-1-1: Lone Star repeats on Tuesdays. The CW made the snap decision to swap its Monday and Thursday slates after ABC had created a last-minute Thursday night The Golden Bachelor/Bachelor in Paradise one-two punch. And speaking of the Alphabet network earlier this week, it moved Dancing with the Stars to Tuesdays, meaning it still hasnt announced its Monday night plans beyond the first night of the TV season.

According to Nielsen, the fall TV season officially begins Sept. 25. Normally, the primetime lineups would have been locked months ago, and fall marketing campaigns would already be well underway. Billboards and bus wraps touting new and returning series would be seen all over Los Angeles and around the country. Promos would be filling the airwaves and social media would be flooded with tune-in details. But of course, fall 2023 is not a normal season.

It just feels like almost every year something gets thrown at us that that is a curveball, says CBS chief marketing officer Mike Benson, who notes that it wasnt that long ago we were dealing with pandemic production delays that also led to a jumbled fall. From a marketing perspective, its really not about telling people what they arent going to get. Its more about managing expectations as to what they will get.

The dual WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes halted production on scripted series this summer forcing a pivot at the traditional broadcast networks toward fall schedules filled with reality fare, game shows, sports, repeats and acquisitions from various streaming and international sources.

We still have a fall schedule to promote, so were still doing all the things, says Shannon Ryan, Disney Entertainment Television president of marketing, whose oversight includes ABC. Were still creating the key art and were cutting the promos, and were scheduling the promos, and were posting the social assets and were baking the media campaigns. Were still doing the press junkets its just with unscripted talent.

Thats also the view from Fox Entertainment marketing president Darren Schillace, who notes that the September launch is still a go its just very different in the wake of the strikes.

Its not like this fall is on hold, its just a heavy unscripted skew, he says. I use my mom as a focus group. If shes heard about this strike, everybody has. Were very clear that everything that were promoting this fall new, new, new. You cant say enough. You have to reinforce these arent repeat shows.

Except for the fact that most of the networks are airing repeats some more than others. Through a mix of strategic planning and pure luck, NBC heads into fall with a schedule that most looks like its normal design.

We are really uniquely positioned to make it feel like fall is back, she says. I look at our slate as one of the only places where new scripted dramas launching, so obviously were leaning into that. Given that theres less competition, the lanes are a little bit clearer, says Margaret Walker, SVP of NBC brand strategy and audience growth.

The network wont have new episodes its Dick Wolf-fueled Law Order and One Chicago shows (its airing reruns of both), but it does have new episodes of returning series Quantum Leap and Magnum P.I., in addition to new dramas The Irrational, with Jesse L. Martin, and the Shanola Hampton-led Found. Add in four (!) hours of The Voice (featuring new judge Reba McEntire), Sunday Night Football and a new Saturday night Big 10 college football package, and Walker likes the hand shes been dealt.

A lot of folks are like, are you not busy? But there are shows on our air, we have a lot of new stuff to launch, Walker says. So while the environment in which we are operating in presents unique challenges, it is like the same. Weve got a lot of tools in our toolkit, and so while were not using some of those tools, were full boar on all the other ones and it feels like a real fall.

Schillace notes that Fox also has new scripted episodes via its Sunday night Animation Domination block, including The Simpsons, Bobs Burgers, Family Guy and long-gestating Dan Harmon half-hour Krapopolis, which was originally slated to premiere last year and has been promoted for over a year. Unscripted returnees include The Masked Singer and the Gordon Ramsay stable of food shows including Kitchen Nightmares, with its first new episodes in a decade.

We are very lucky, going into this fall, Fox is up 5% year over year and were starting in a place of positivity, as well as having college football, pro football, the World Series, he says.

At CBS, the priority is to keep Sunday afternoon NFL a powerhouse, along with supersized 90-minute editions of Survivor and The Amazing Race on Wednesdays. The Eye is also hoping to turn viewers on to the international versions of its popular franchises with NCIS: Sydney and the U.K. edition of Ghosts. The schedule rounds out with a ton of reality and then repeats of Paramount Networks Yellowstone on Sundays.

Benson is bullish on Yellowstone although it ended last season as TVs most-watched scripted show, he has stats that show its still an unknown commodity to his audience. 80% of the CBS audience has never seen an episode of Yellowstone, Benson says. We want to remind the audience that its not only a phenomenal show, but its a cultural phenomenon.

CBS is creating an NCIS Day on Sept. 25 the first night of the season to promote the franchises 20th anniversary. The Eye also has a new Survivor campaign in the works and is unveiling a social media initiative dubbed Hi, CBS.

And then theres ABC, where The Golden Bachelor is a priority. Ryan says plans include screenings of the series in more than 200 retirement communities, as well as a partnership with USA Pickleball (sponsoring tournaments around the country) and golden discount deals for all ages (think senior discounts, but for anyone) via partnerships like Uber Eats, Cinnabon and 1-800 Flowers.

Were working with these grandfluencers, who are these amazing, delightful people that have massive followings on Tik Tok and Instagram, she says. Were creating a golden glow-up Snapchat lens. Were really leaning in hard on that show, because we feel it has an opportunity to bring in an audience just like we would on a regular fall scripted show.

The networks are doing all of this with an acknowledgement that they may have a heavier lift if and when their regular scripted shows return in midseason. At Fox, Schillace says he has developed continuity campaigns to make sure people dont forget about series like The Cleaning Lady, which aired its last original at the end of 2022. Thats a long time between seasons, he says. Back in our youth we would have summer repeats, and thats not the case now. Were very strategically finding times of the year to partner with Hulu, with our studios, in keeping a pulse on shows that would normally go quiet.

Hulu also falls under Ryans oversight, giving her the opportunity to promote both current and library ABC content (as well as shows that are produced by its sister studio).

Its an opportunity to remind fans that they can start from the beginning and rewatch their favorite shows, and catch up on episodes or shows that they may have missed during the season, she says. Were using the Hulu brand to get people to catch up or potentially start from the beginning, because there wont be those scripted fall shows coming in September, like theyre used to.

(Think of all of this as a modern-day version of NBCs infamous 1990s campaign to promote repeats: If you havent seen it, its new to you!)

The marketing execs are also having to contend with promoting some of their fall wares without the help of talent. Reality hosts and contestants are still able to participate, since theyre under a different SAG-AFTRA contract, but theres a limit to how much people feel comfortable with doing right now.

And the usual fall photo and promo shoots were mostly out of the question this time (no mondo shoots, as theyre called in the biz), as are fall preview specials. We tried to find a different approach, Benson says. We do have to work through some of the things that we just arent doing this year.

Schillace says he has worked out multiple scenarios for how to promote the rest of the season once production resumes. I have five different plans based on when the strike may end, he says. Everyones got their plan of attack. Itll be purely go mode.