When did networks start airing new episodes on Thanksgiving?

I'll say this--they crammed so much stuff last week--American Music Awards on Tuesday, Madonna concert on Wednesday and Deal Or No Deal's 2-hour special on Thanskgiving (as well as new shows on other networks that holiday)! Were the networks THAT desperate on sweeps? I don't think I've ever seen the networks go over the top like that! They could have spread it out every two days instead of three nights in a row.

I think that networks got tired of showing reruns, specials and old 80s/90s movies on Thanksgiving and decided to air new episodes. They might have been tired of low ratings year after year (47th, 58th, 75th, 90th place instead of No. 1, 5 or 10) so showing something new was a change. I thought that the Deal or No Deal staff and Howie Mandel took Thanksgiving off to be with their families, but here they are ramping off a new show. Liked the Thanksgiving theme of giving audience members some pumpkin pie. Their holiday show was quite good, but 2 hours is too excessive. NBC need to show only one hour next Thanksgiving, air an old '80s movie afterwards and leave the studio to be with their families in LA or Burbank. But when you look at it, other than NFL football, most people hardly watch or DON'T watch TV on Thanksgiving. They'd rather be with their families and relatives face to face. And that something that the TV networks and execs will have to deal with. You can't rope everybody in.

"Sweeps didn't matter in the past."

Huh? Sweeps ALWAYS mattered. And the more competition there is out there, the more sweeps will matter.

I'm not sure why Thanksgiving seems to ALWAYS be part of sweeps now. This seems to be at least the third year in a row that it has.

It wasn't that many years ago that Halloween used to be in sweeps, and that the measuring period would begin somewhere around the 29th of October or so (whatever the Thursday closest to that date was). I can't remember for sure the last time this was the case.

I'm just wondering whether this Thanksgiving inclusion is a permanent change. Personally, I'd like to wrap up the book in time to take a LONG weekend, rather than having to take off Turkey Day and then be back at work on Friday to keep on promoting.

Sometimes Thanksgiving is in the ratings period, sometimes it's not. This year it is, therefore, new episodes.

You also mhave to factor in People Meters in largers cities to measure viewership which means the "off sweeps" matter more to the local stations.

Well my tivo's were recording away so I could have a ton of stuff to catch up on next week. My sister scared me when she said she thought either Grey's or ER were 2 hours and I knew they were both being recorded on the same tivo so I might miss one but it turned out to be DOND that was 2hrs.

Thanksgiving for my family is football, football and more football. We actually through a little basketball in tonight but for the most part it's an all football fest for four days. In fact for years we ate on Wed night because my mom didn't want to miss football. Thurs was turkey sandwiches and Friday was turkey has and waffles. I miss those days, getting older sucks.

But at least Dec will hit soon and repeats will start and I can finally get caught up on shows like The Nine. I might even go to the movies too.

Thank goodness. Just because it's Thanksgiving, doesn't mean people don't watch TV.

I think it did start with Friends -- and they realized they could get BIG ratings. I still remember when Brad Pitt was on Friends and we all gathered to watch it. In the past, it was having Home alone or ET as a yearly event. It does actually make perfect sense because no one goes out on Thanksgiving night anyways and those who miss it can catch the show in reruns.

Sweeps didn't matter in the past. I noticed it last year but this year EVERY show is new. It's rather odd.

This is a GREAT idea especially for us up in Canada that don't get a long 4 day weekend! Bring on the new shows!!

PS Happy Thanksgiving

Tonight begins the 4th and final week of sweeps. That's why.