Primetime for daytime

"Day for evening" is really a production term for techniques accustomed to create the look of evening in shots really taken throughout your day.However watching television recently, the word is dealing with another meaning, with programs and formats typically connected with daytime -- an progressively moribund medium -- finding second existence on night time agendas.This phenomenon is not exactly new. Indeed, it had been twelve years back when "Who would like to be considered a Uniform" set TV scrambling to produce primetime quiz- and gameshows, prior to the trend cooled -- among inevitable saturation -- faster than you are able to say "You're the 'Weakest Link.' Goodbye."The most recent salvo, however, is much more varied, and may come as daytime approaches a substantial crossroads. The cancellation of countless lengthy-running cleaning soap operas -- most lately ABC's "My Children" and "One Existence to reside,Inch changed by cheaper talk/lifestyle shows -- highlights a change in viewer designs and habits, in addition to economic forces compelling developers to reexamine every daypart.Nothing better reflects the drip of day into evening than "The Rosie Show," Rosie O'Donnell's fledgling talk program for The famous host oprah Winfrey's battling OWN network. Love her or otherwise, the show was initially created with distribution in your mind and definitely wouldn't look unnatural at 3 p.m. on the local station.On the other hand, possibly consistent with Winfrey's sensibility from her talk days, a lot of OWN's programming approximates daytime -- including "Oprah's Lifeclass," which repackages old episodes and dresses them track of Winfrey meting out Modern knowledge.OWN is not alone in mining genres typically connected with daytime as traditional lines of demarcation between day-parts fade, with a lot more good examples premiering within the next couple of days.MTV's "Friend Zone" may be airing at 7 p.m. beginning November. 1, however the series -- featuring teens confessing a concealed infatuation towards the friend who's the item of this desire -- seems patterned following the "secret crush" instances of Maury Povich's talkshow. By featuring a set of tales within each half-hour, the presentation does not allow additional time to grow around the "good or badInch facts than Povich's daytime combinations did.Elsewhere, BBC America will unveil a U.S. original patterned after British panel shows, but additionally resembling ancient items like "What's My Line?" Within this situation, it's "Can You Rather? With Graham Norton," in which a quartet of panelists (to give them a call "celebs" could be unnecessarily charitable) softball bat around hypothetical questions, like whether they'd rather eat pet food for any year or perhaps be shot within the knee.What appears obvious is by using the industry's business design in flux, things are in play -- including, potentially, restored efforts emigrate soaps in to the evening. While ABC's Soapnet is certainly going away and MyNetworkTV's dalliance with British-language-style telenovelas flopped, any genre by having an established history merits consideration -- especially if it may be mounted cheaply enough to outlive inside a heavily fragmented atmosphere.The primary challenge is the fact that cleaning soap sensibilities happen to be co-elected by reality implies that replicate their narrative dynamics, on channels for example Analysis Discovery along with a&E. Such programs did to daytime serials what newsmagazines did to TV movies -- approximating the thrills a lot sooner, at a lower price.Because the quizshow flameout indicates, systems -- even niche-oriented ones -- have to be careful about getting caught up and finding yourself having a surplus of programming where "cheap" may be the first adjective that involves mind.It had been 5 years ago, in the end, when NBC first sailed intends to air only less-costly unscripted programs at 8 p.m., with then-NBC Universal TV Group Boss Shaun Zucker saying from the network business, "I'm not sure if it's irreparably damaged, however the economic model is within considerable amount of pressure." NBC adopted that initiative a couple of years later with "The Jay Leno Show" experiment at 10 p.m. And that we all saw how that exercised.Nonetheless, there appears to become little question systems continues seeking programs to balance selection costs, that also includes getting talent for example Physical Violence Worsens put on multiple hats, straddling daytime and primetime with separate shows. Which might explain the present wave of "day for evening" production, as systems appear going to tap probably the most economical avenues available -- trying, as well as they are able to, to help keep the lights on. Contact John Lowry at john.lowry@variety.com