Harper’s Island Moved to Saturday Nights

NEW YORK: CBS is relocating its 13-week mystery event series Harper’s Island to Saturday nights at 9 p.m. from its Thursday night spot, beginning this weekend.

Announcing the move, CBS cited DVR and online streaming results reflecting "strong viewer engagement" with the show. Kelly Kahl, the senior executive VP of prime time at CBS Television, noted: "The preliminary DVR and online streaming data suggest a passionate audience for Harper’s outside its current Thursday time period borders. This move gives us an opportunity to improve the time period on Thursday while experimenting with more original programming on Saturday, and continuing to serve an audience that is clearly engaged in the ongoing Harper’s Island story."

Citing Nielsen data, CBS says that the show’s premiere audience increased by 29 percent in the 18-49 set when comparing live and live plus seven-day DVR playback results. The premiere was seen by 11.29 million people when accounting for DVR playback, versus the 9.65 million who tuned in live. The show was also CBS.com’s biggest online premiere ever.