The Friday Show

The Friday Show was a Flarlandian live television program and programming block broadcast on Friday nights on Channel 14 between 1999 and 2007. The program was cancelled in the wake of a scandal from its main competitor FBC 3 in 2007 and the limbo period the channel had in the next two years.
==History==
===First phase===
The Friday Show was conceived by Channel 14's director of programming Sam Chism in 1998. His investment in Channel 14, influenced by the ratings boost it experienced when Home and Away and Neighbours joined the schedule when it got the national broadcasting rights.
At the time, Channel 14 had a limited amount of local productions. Most of these were music shows, influenced by its radio counterpart Radio Active. As the years went on, Channel 14's local series began to increase in quantity, at the same time as its cable competitor Channel A. His idea was to aggregate all local productions in order to compete against all other terrestrial networks and some cable networks as well.
The Friday Show premiered on June 11, 1999. Initially its style drew upon parodies of Channel 14, right down to the fact that it included actual television hosts from UWB's channels. They were pre-recorded and, according to Chism, it was a low-cost solution. He said that, if the show attained a considerable success, it would switch to the well-desired live format, primarily to counter What Now? and KZDC on K-Zone.
The channel had a special live Millennium broadcast on December 31, 1999, the program was pre-empted in favor of a special broadcast making fun of the Y2K bug. None of the TFS hosts were sent.
On June 8, 2000, The Friday Show went live for the first time. The usual mix of Channel 14 productions was now complemented with live links form the presenters as well as exclusive interviews and band performances.
Chism left Channel 14 in 2001. The new administration decided to improve the format of the program. The format was primarily left unchanged, yet the shows were to change. There was also a Halloween special in 2002.
On the premiere night of Media for Dinner in December 2002, Charles Mesure hosted for the entire night and introduced the double premiere of the series.
===Second phase===
In May 2003, The Friday Show was replaced by a temporary summer block. On October 3, 2003, the second phase of The Friday Show premiered. The format was heavily retooled, while still keeping its primary essence. Despite the changes, Channel 14 still had high ratings when TFS was on, with the former 2.000.000 estimate being reduced to around 1.400.000. The show still managed to survive because it still had ratings of over a million people watching. The new format was conceived as a "bridge" between Channel 14 and Radio Active, to the extent that Radio Active broadcast, for a few weeks, a radio counterpart featuring live studio audio. It failed due to the fact that Radio Active wasn't generating enough listeners whenever TFS was on. The new hosts were Darwin Chester and Priscilla Nkwandah. Priscilla was replaced later by Annalese Stewart when Priscilla became the host of Radio National's Geek Talk.
Priscilla was replaced in 2005 by Louise Farley.
The show was reformatted slightly in 2006.
===Cancellation===
The FBC-backed Cromartie Network Invasion Incident that hit billboards of four youth-centric terrestrial channels (FBC 3, Channel 14, Grimy Factory, Channel A) had massive repercussions on Channel 14's output.
The last editions were receiving an average audience of about 500.000. Its uncerimonious finale attracted a slightly higher audience of over 550.000.
==Hosts==
===Fixed===
*Darwin Chester (2003-2007)
*Priscilla Nkwandah (2003-2004)
===Temporary, fill-in and one-off===
*Charles Mesure (2002)
*Ajakoo Johnson-Roberts (2004, 2005)
==Programming==
===Shows that had first-run episodes on the first phase of The Friday Show===
These shows were known collectively as the TFS Greats.
*Mondo Bizarro (1999-2002)
*The Unauthorized History of Flarland (2001-2003)
===Reruns of older shows on The Friday Show===
===Shows that had first-run episodes on the second phase of The Friday Show===
*Soupstock) (2004-2006, series later dropped and remaining episodes seen in other slots)