Date: 16th January 2001

NBC To Pit Super-Friends Against Survivor


NBC will be trying an unusal tactic to thwart the foray into its Thursday-night territory by CBS's Survivor: The Australian Outback. The network said Monday that it will lengthen its hit sitcom Friends about ten minutes and then fill the remainder of the 8:00-9:00 p.m. hour with a special live, primetime version of Saturday Night Live for at least two weeks. Today's (Tuesday) USA Today quoted NBC West Coast president Jeff Zucker as acknowledging that the new Survivor series is "probably going to take some audience out of Friends, but we couldn't put anything stronger against Survivor."

Source: Studio Briefing