In early 1990, as the NFL negotiated with the networks for the broadcast rights to its games, rumors circulated that Monday Night Football could be switching from ABC to CBS or Fox.

There was much consternation in the television press about the possibility of Monday Night Football no longer airing on ABC. The series had just finished its 20th season on the network, and critics wondered how the NFL and ABC could allow such a long-standing tradition to come to an end.

However, there was little mention of the possibility of a streak nearly twice as long ending if Monday Night Football landed on CBS. Since the fall of 1951, CBS had continuously aired sitcoms in the Monday nights at 9:00 (8:00 Central) time slot during the regular season.

During that time, classics such as I Love Lucy, The Andy Griffith Show, All in the Family, and M*A*S*H aired in this time slot. CBS nearly always had a hit in the slot—with The Danny Thomas Show, The Lucy Show, Mayberry R.F.D., Here’s Lucy, Maude, Kate & Allie, and Newhart also among its occupants. Before Monday Night Football even hit the air, CBS reached the top 10 in this slot 18 times in 19 seasons—with The Danny Thomas Show a near miss at 12th place during the 1960-61 season. 

In the spring of 1990, Murphy Brown was finishing its second season in the slot. A moderate success at the time, it was about to break out, hit the top 10, and pass Monday Night Football in the ratings. In their first 20 years going head-to-head, the CBS 9:00 comedy defeated Monday Night Football in the season’s ratings 14 times, with even the much-maligned AfterMASH topping ABC’s prime time football for the 1983-84 season.

Not only did Murphy Brown go on to a long run, but CBS continued the tradition with perennial hits Everybody Loves Raymond and Two and a Half Men. By the 2010-11 season, CBS’s sitcom streak had reached 60 seasons with no end in sight. It wasn’t until CBS’ surprise announcement that a new drama, Scorpion, would take over the slot in the fall of 2014 that the streak ended.

Throughout the many ups and downs of sitcoms and the frequent premature proclamations of the genre’s demise, CBS had not given the slot to a western, drama, variety series, news magazine, game show, or reality series.

In the fall of 2006, Monday Night Football not only switched networks, but it also left broadcast television entirely. ESPN has carried the series since then, with Sunday night’s game airing on NBC. And the world went on turning. As a side note, ABC has occasionally simulcast Monday Night Football in recent years, with plans to do so every week this fall.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll take a look at the history of CBS sitcoms in this time slot.