Forget ratings, ranking and reviews, ‘Scrubs’ is judged by the company it keeps

It’s easy when you have “Friends.”

Such is the lot of “Scrubs,” which took up residence in prime time’s most unforgiving prime-time acreage this season when NBC positioned it after “Friends.” Based on the hospital comedy’s Nielsen chart, all life signs should be vital, were it not for the mitigating fact that 30% of “Friends” viewers -- nearly 8 million people -- don’t hang around to “Must-See” it each Thursday.

Television executives have developed a roster of terms to politely describe the programming pilot fish that draw sustenance from TV’s big predators. They are “satellite” shows, which, when lucky enough to be sandwiched by two popular series, are “hammocked” between “tent poles.”

As a result, their performance is judged more by “lead-in retention” (sounds like a medical condition, doesn’t it?) than raw tonnage. Such a show can be a “time-period hit” and a failure, which explains the demise of “Friends’ ” previous neighbors.

“It’s the weirdest barometer in the world to talk about ‘retention,’ ” said “Scrubs” creator and executive producer Bill Lawrence. “You find yourself depressed when you’re the fifth-most-watched show in the country. It’s a strange position to be in.”

For this reason, a cursory trip through the weekly Nielsen standings often doesn’t tell you much. Because for all the new technology available -- not the least being the old-fashioned remote control -- millions of viewers lumpishly sit through marginal programs if they happen to dwell next to well-established ones.

Several newer series fall into this category of perceived parasites, from CBS’ “Yes, Dear” and “Still Standing” on Mondays to NBC’s “Good Morning, Miami,” which replaced “Just Shoot Me.”

Satellite shows thus become the Rodney Dangerfields of television, garnering scant respect, frequently with good reason. “Just Shoot Me,” for example, did just fine situated between “Will & Grace” and “ER” but has seen its audience plunge since being separated from those lengthy coattails. CBS’ “Becker” learned the same hard lesson once removed from “Everybody Loves Raymond’s” halo.

In this respect, television, like real estate, tends to be all about location. Although there are occasional self-starters -- ABC’s “8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter” and “My Wife and Kids” come to mind -- the best way to get a new program sampled is to let it ride piggyback on a known commodity. Theoretically, in TV’s big circle of life, the old show can then die and the new one carry on the task of entertaining America.

As a rule of thumb, a satellite show must generally yield no more than 20% of the mother ship’s audience to be deemed a success. Slip much more than that and the newcomer is apt to be tossed out of orbit by antsy network executives.

Because “Friends” sets the bar so high, CBS’ “Survivor” provides formidable competition and so many NBC shows have died on Thursdays, a bigger drop for “Scrubs” is deemed acceptable. Last week, in fact, NBC was doing back-flips because the program retained 84% of “Friends’ ” rating in the advertiser-friendly demographic of 18 to 49, a higher percentage than anything to fill that adjacent space during the last 18 months other than “Friends” itself.

The networks, meanwhile, endeavor to foster the impression that these programs are bona fide hits, with the spin sometimes reflecting more creativity than the actual shows. NBC once famously suggested that its 8:30 and 9:30 “Must-See TV” series suffer because people were busy and needed to do the little things -- write checks, walk the dog, put the baby to bed, watch 30 minutes of a college football game they couldn’t care less about -- during the precious half-hours between “Friends,” “Seinfeld” and “ER.”

It’s all about helping new series take root, which clearly assumes a greater sense of urgency as long-in-the-tooth stalwarts like “Friends” (which began life after “Mad About You”) and “Frasier” (launched via “Seinfeld”) march toward oblivion, crossing over to the great television burial ground.

As anyone who has tried to tape a favorite show has doubtless discovered, programmers have even initiated scheduling stunts to try to pull viewers into that next half-hour, with “Friends,” “Raymond” and “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” all spilling a minute or two past their allotted time.

At this point, no one really expects “Scrubs,” in the second year of its network residency, to continue attracting as many viewers without “Friends” funneling demographically desirable young adults in its direction but, inevitably, every show must lose its training wheels.

The problem, Lawrence noted, is that in a not-unrelated development, the duration of TV executive tenures and the time frame for nurturing series both keep shrinking, ratcheting up the pressure for programs to stand on their own.

While producers can find validation in various ways, he conceded, “we find ourselves asking the same questions networks do: Are people watching our show because of where it is or because they actually like it?”

So when can a satellite show fly on its own or rest easy without the aid of a hammock? Such determinations remain an inexact science, a guessing game with careers, networks’ fortunes and viewers’ precious time hanging in the balance.

Ultimately, it’s a gut check, but the best test might boil down to this: Would you watch “Scrubs” or “Yes, Dear” if they weren’t propped up by “tent poles,” or does the thought make it suddenly seem like a good time to go walk the dog?

*

Brian Lowry’s column appears Wednesdays. He can be reached at brian.lowry@latimes.com.